Cruise ship worker charged in stabbings on vessel passing Vancouver Island en route to Alaska
A cruise-ship worker from South Africa was arrested Tuesday in Alaska’s capital, accused of attacking a woman and two security guards with scissors on board the vessel as it sailed by Vancouver Island.
The U.S. attorney’s office says the man is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon within maritime and territorial jurisdiction. Online court records do not show a lawyer for the 35-year-old man.
According to an affidavit from FBI special agent Matthew Judy, the man was recently hired by a cruise line and joined the ship, the Norwegian Encore, in Seattle.
The ship set off Sunday for a weeklong trip with scheduled stops in Alaska ports, including the capital of Juneau, and B.C. The vessel is scheduled to stop in Victoria on its return to Seattle.
The incident happened west of Vancouver Island as the ship was sailing to Alaska. According to the affidavit, during the “late evening” Sunday, ship personnel saw the man trying to deploy a lifeboat, and he was taken by security to a medical centre for an evaluation.
While there, he “became irrational and attempted to leave,” and “physically attacked” a guard and a nurse, the affidavit states.
He ran into another room, where he grabbed a pair of scissors and stabbed a woman who was being examined, as well as two guards who tried to intervene, before being subdued and held in a “shipboard jail,” the affidavit says.
None of the injuries were considered life-threatening. The ship arrived in Juneau on Tuesday, where the man was arrested by the FBI, the U.S. attorney’s office says.