17-year-old injured in stabbing; two arrested

Two people, including a 17-year-old boy, were taken into custody in connection with a stabbing that left another 17-year-old boy cut in the throat earlier this week.

Police were called Monday afternoon to the 17-year-old suspect’s residence and Medical Center of South Arkansas in reference to a stabbing. An officer made contact with the 17-year-old victim at MCSA. According to a police report, he had been transported there in a private vehicle.

Treshun T. McDuffie, 20, and the suspect provided conflicting accounts of how the incident began just before 3 p.m. Monday, but both made statements indicating the 17-year-old suspect had cut the other 17-year-old boy during an altercation at the suspect’s residence in the 500 block of North Parkway.

The suspect told police that McDuffie and the victim came to his house and “began to agitate him.” He said he and the victim previously had contentious encounters, and the victim had issued terroristic threats against him. He said he asked McDuffie and the victim to leave his residence at least twice, but neither complied.

Upon the second request, he said the victim became angry and began advancing toward him.

The suspect said his sister intervened, stepping between the two boys to prevent them from fighting, and when the victim took a swing at him, the victim inadvertently struck his

sister on the arm.

Moments later, when the victim attempted to strike him again, the suspect said he produced a knife and cut the victim in the neck. He said the victim then ran south, and someone picked him up in a vehicle and drove him to the hospital.

McDuffie said he was visiting a residence in the 500 block of Jewell Lane and was communicating with the suspect’s sister via social media. He said he then walked

to the suspect’s residence and was on the front steps speaking to the victim’s sister when the victim “walked into the yard with him.”

McDuffie said the 17-year-old suspect came outside and twice demanded that he and the victim leave.

At one point, the suspect “rattled his pants” as if to imply that he was “holding something in them,” McDuffie said.

The victim told the suspect to “shut up,” McDuffie said, and when they refused to leave a second time, the suspect ran toward the victim, retrieved a knife from

his pocket, and began slashing at the victim.

He said the victim ran away, covering his throat with his hand.

McDuffie said he walked out into the street and yelled at the suspect. He then saw someone driving the victim toward Medical Center of South Arkansas.

A witness told police that the suspect appeared to swing at the victim as the victim was stepping backward in an apparent attempt to avoid being struck by the suspect.

The witness said the victim then grabbed the left side of his neck and

started walking south, stopping in front of her residence in the 500 block of Jewell Lane.

The witness said a relative then drove the boy to Medical Center of South Arkansas. Police said he was bleeding heavily.

Police also said they recovered the knife from the suspect’s North Parkway residence.

McDuffie appeared Wednesday in 35th Judicial District Court on a charge of first-degree battery for his alleged role in the incident.

The 17-year-old suspect is in the custody of

Union County juvenile authorities. A detention hearing for the 17-yearold suspect has been scheduled at 1:30 p.m. today in Union County Circuit Court, according to an El Dorado police report.

Attempts to get an update on the medical condition of the 17-year-old victim and to reach El Dorado Police Chief Billy White and Capt. Kevin Holt, public information officer for the El Dorado Police Department, for additional information were unsuccessful.

A detective who is working on the case

said he was not authorized to speak publicly on the details of the investigation. As of late Wednesday, he was working to get the authorization.

During McDuffie’s first appearance hearing, he was issued a $5,000 cash or corporate surety bond and ordered not to have any contact with the suspect or victim in the case. He was released on bond from the Union County Jail at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.