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Homeless thug stabs two people, including a nine-year-old boy, with a butcher knife he grabbed from a shelf before being shot dead by a security guard at the LA Target store
- A homeless man randomly stabbed a nine-year-old boy and an unrelated 25-year-old woman Tuesday night at a Target store in downtown Los Angeles
- Police say the thug ‘confronted’ the young boy and threatened to kill him before grabbing a large butcher knife from the shelf and stabbing him
- The boy suffered a deep wound to the back of his shoulder and fell to the ground
- The suspect then continued to walk through the store, approached a 25-year-old Asian woman and ‘brutally’ stabbed her in the chest
- The suspect was eventually shot dead by a guard after he swung at the guard with a raised knife
- Police say the boy is in stable condition but may have suffered neurological damage and the woman’s condition is in critical condition
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A homeless man randomly stabbed two people shopping at a Target store in downtown Los Angeles before being shot dead by a security guard.
The Los Angeles Police Department says the suspect, a 40-year-old black man in “homeless clothing,” grabbed a large butcher knife from the shelf and stabbed a nine-year-old boy and a 25-year-old Asian woman in an unprovoked attack Tuesday night.
Police Chief Michel Moore said the suspect initially “confronted” the young boy, who was shopping with his mother at the store at around 6:20 p.m., telling him “he would stab and kill him.”
“He repeated that more than once,” the police chief said at a news conference after the attack.
The boy was trying to run away, Moore said, when the suspect took the knife from the shelf in the store and stabbed the young boy near the intersection of 7th Street and Figueroa in a neighborhood known for shops and high-rise apartments.
The boy suffered a deep wound to the back of his shoulder and fell to the ground.
Meanwhile, the unknown suspect walked through the store, where he approached a 25-year-old woman and “brutally” stabbed her in the chest.
Good Samaritans tried to help the woman, authorities say, and pulled her away to the pharmacy section of the store and closed the gate when she bled to death.
Authorities are pictured driving a 25-year-old victim out of a downtown Los Angeles target on Tuesday night after she was stabbed by a homeless person
Authorities say the homeless thug grabbed a butcher knife from a target’s shelf and stabbed a nine-year-old boy who was shopping with his mother and an unrelated 25-year-old woman
Police are pictured at the site of the Target store after the rampage
Authorities have cordoned off the area while the investigation into the stabbing continues
At that point, authorities say, the suspect approached a security guard at the front of the store.
The guard tried to de-escalate the situation and would use a baton to stop the madman, authorities say, but pulled out his gun when the suspect began lunging at him with his knife raised.
The unnamed guard then shot the man in the torso and authorities were able to take him into custody, but he later succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital.
He would not have known his victims, who are not related to each other.
Moore said the boy underwent surgery and was in stable condition, but may have suffered neurological damage.
However, the woman is in critical condition and will undergo surgery on Tuesday evening.
The tragedy occurred near the intersection of 7th Street and Figueroa in a neighborhood known for its shops and high-rise apartments.
In a press conference, police chief Michel Moore said the boy has undergone surgery and is in stable condition, while the woman is in critical condition.
Moore added that police were responding to another call at the FIGat7th shopping complex in the city’s financial district when they received a call about the stabbing.