Citizen Staff Writer
DAVID L. TEIBEL
dteibel@tucsoncitizen.com
More than 60 police officers and detectives are searching an East Side area for a suspect in a Thursday morning stabbing.
Police say the man may be the same person who stabbed two people March 17 on the East Side, Tucson police spokeswoman Linda Galindo said.
The latest stabbing victim sustained minor wounds and was treated at a hospital and released, Galindo said.
Galindo gave this account of the attack early Thursday:
A 25-year-old man, his wife and their small child stopped at a drugstore to get baby supplies shortly before 1 a.m.
As they drove away, the child began to fuss and the couple pulled into an apartment complex parking lot behind the drugstore.
As the father attended to his child in the car’s back seat, a man walked up and asked for a cigarette.
The father said he did not smoke, and the stranger left.
The father, standing outside the car, returned to caring for his child but became aware that the stranger was returning.
When the father turned to face him, the man stabbed him.
The father sustained wounds on his hands and arms while trying to ward off the attack.
He fell backward into the car and was stabbed in the abdomen. Galindo described it as a minor abdominal wound.
The suspect then ran away.
The attack occurred near East Broadway and Jessica Avenue, she said. The victim’s wife and child were not harmed.
The suspect was described as about 50 years old, about 6 feet tall with “salt-and-pepper” hair and a light beard.
He was wearing jeans and an olive green shirt with three-quarter-length sleeves, Galindo said.
Sgt. Fabian Pacheco reported the March 17 attacks of two people on the East Side.
In the first attack, the police spokesman said, a 51-year-old man was stabbed at a bus stop in the 7800 block of East Speedway Boulevard while he waited for a shuttle to his job.
In the second attack that day, a man was stabbed in the abdomen by another man who walked up to the victim and demanded money, Pacheco said.
That victim also was taken to a hospital.
That second attack was in the 6700 block of East Broadway about 8:55 a.m.
Suspect in East Side stabbing could be tied to attacks last week