Stabbing Victim Had Probation Warrant Out For His Arrest, Say Police

Norristown police officers arrived at West Marshall and Cherry Streets on Sunday evening in response to a stabbing report, and found that the victim had an active probation warrant for his arrest, say police.

A Norristown police officer was sent to West Marshall and Cherry Streets On Dec. 1 around 7:12 p.m. to respond to a medical emergency, which was later found to be a stabbing, according to a Norristown police report.

Plymouth Ambulance had sent EMTs to attend to the male victim. The officer conversed with them and the victim, who had been injured in his back and his right hand due to stab wounds and was bleeding heavily. The victim smelled of alcohol but did not seem intoxicated, according to the report.

The victim told police that he had been walking at the 600 block of Cherry Street when a white man who was about 5’7” “ran up” to the victim and stabbed him, per the report. The victim told police that he came to West Marshall and Cherry Streets and someone walking by noticed him and called 911.

The victim told police that he did not know the man who allegedly stabbed him and he said that he had not been robbed. He was taken to Paoli Hospital in Paoli to be treated.

Around 8:25 p.m. Norristown police officers knocked on doors on the 700 block of Swede Street to ask residents if they had seen or heard anything in relation to the incident.

One officer noticed a blood stain and a can of beer in front of an address in the 500 block of Cherry Street. The victim had stated that the incident happened in the 600 block of Cherry Street.

Police were able to communicate with an employee at a store at Cherry and Marshall Streets. The store’s surveillance video was rewound to a point where the victim and another man were seen stopping in front of the address in the 500 block of Cherry Street where police found most of the blood. The video did not show a struggle between the victim and the other man, and the police report indicates that this led “police to believe [the] incident occurred elsewhere.”

Police contacted the original 911 caller, who said that he saw the victim come from the 600 block of Maple Alley and walked towards Cherry Street.  He told police that the victim was bleeding and asked him to call 911 for him. The caller said that he was the other man seen in the surveillance video. The male seemed to be assisting the victim in the video, according to the report.

One officer found splatters on blood on the sidewalk near Maple Alley. More drops of blood were found and led police behind an address on the 700 block of Swede Street, near Maple Alley. Police noted that a pile of leaves had been mussed, “as if a small struggle occurred,” according to the report.

Police saw that the victim had an active probation warrant for his arrest. An officer contacted the hospital around 9:30 p.m. and was told that the victim had a tube in his chest and would be admitted. Police were told that his injuries might be life-threatening.