A man who tried to rob a woman at knifepoint stabbed the woman in the collarbone as her young child looked on, according to police and press accounts.
SPRINGFIELD – A Friday night robbery attempt was captured by surveillance footage, which shows a mother and daughter being accosted by a knife-wielding man who stabs the woman in the lower throat as she enters Ben Thanh Market at 455 Belmont Ave. in Forest Park.
The video, which aired Sunday night on both 22News and abc40, shows the assailant threaten the mother, who bolts from the man and leaves her 4-year-old daughter behind. The man then grabs the girl and holds a knife near her head. The child, who never lets go of her doll, manages to break free from the man, who then pursues the mother again.
The incident happened at about 8:35 p.m. Friday, but the suspect was still at large as of Monday morning.
Copies of the surveillance video apparently were not made available to local TV stations until Sunday. The video shows the man catching the mother as she attempts to enter the Asian market, stabbing her in the front of her lower neck near the collarbone. The woman was treated at Baystate Medical Center and later released, abc40 reports.
Springfield Police Lt. James M. Rosso said the incident is under investigation by city detectives, who couldn't be reached for comment this morning.
Detective Jim McCoy previously told 22News that the woman received a stab wound to the collarbone area. He characterized the incident as an attempted robbery, with the man demanding the woman's purse. The surveillance footage shows a handful of men chasing after the suspect.
Police are asking anyone with information about the suspect to contact detectives at (413) 787-6355. Anonymous text-message tips may be sent to CRIMES (274637), with the body of the message beginning with the word SOLVE.
WARNING: Images may be disturbing to some viewers.
MAP of Forest Park crime scene area: