Victims’ injuries stall APD investigation into Tractor Supply stabbings
By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
While rumors continue to swirl regarding last week’s double stabbing in the parking lot of Tractor Supply, Atmore police say the severity of the wounds suffered by the two participants has slowed their investigation into the April 23 incident.
Atmore Police Department Sgt. Darrell Mcmunn said this week he finally got a chance to talk with one of the as-yet-unidentified victims last week and hoped to talk with the other by the end of this week, depending on how well that person’s recovery progresses.
“We can’t move forward until we talk with the victims,” McMann said. “I have not spoken with the victims yet because of their conditions. Actually, I talked to one of them last Friday (April 26) and I hope the other will be able to talk later this week. They are both on the road to recovery now, but it was touch-and-go there for a few days.”
The city detective said District Attorney Steve Billy would make the ultimate decision on who, if anyone, will be charged in the incident, and on what charges that person or those people will be arrested.
“We’ll continue to gather the facts and get those statements, then we’ll turn it all over to the DA and see what charges he wants to bring,” McMann explained.
Police reports show that dispatchers relayed a report shortly after noon that two people had been stabbed at Tractor Supply, 161 Lindbergh Avenue.
Both stabbing victims were airlifted to area trauma centers, and a photograph posted on Facebook shows that police took at least one person away in handcuffs.
Unconfirmed reports are that two cars — one with three occupants, the other with a lone individual — pulled into the parking lot after having argued several times earlier in other parts of town.
The two reportedly stabbed each other, but witnesses say one of the participants, reportedly a 19-year-old, took the other’s knife away, then stabbed the other, who is reportedly age 16, “four or five times.”
More than a dozen individuals reportedly witnessed at least some part of the stabbings or were on hand by the time police and medical flight crews arrived.
Reports from one of those witnesses are that the stabs were of such a violent nature that the older man’s knife blade bent, forcing him to return to his car, get a pair of brass knuckles and another knife, and return to the fray. Witnesses say he stabbed the younger man once again after doing so.
Escambia County High School’s campus is just a few yards across the street from the stabbing scene, and the school was placed on “perimeter lockdown” as a precaution, until police gave the all-clear.