MESA AZ. April 6 2008 — Two stabbings at a Mesa mall are related, and authorities have a suspect in custody, police said.The first stabbing occurred Sunday afternoon at a Macy’s department store in Fiesta Mall.
Mesa police said a man was stabbed in an unprovoked attack, receiving non-life threatening injuries.Officers didn’t locate a suspect Sunday, but they got a physical description of the attacker and his vehicle.
A second stabbing happened Monday afternoon. Police stopped and detained a man after security officers found the victim fatally stabbed in the restroom of the Fiesta Mall food court.
Police are withholding the murder victim’s name until his family is notified.Late Monday, Mesa police confirmed the male suspect bought an eight inch butcher knife from a mall store shortly before Monday’s incident.
Police are also in the process of conducting a photo lineup with the victim of Sunday’s stabbing at Fiesta Mall.Mesa Police Chief George Gascon said the attacks appear to be random.The suspect is a convicted murderer with a history of mental illness who spent six years in prison and was released about two years ago, Gascon said.
Mesa police said the victim of Sunday’s stabbing was a 22-year-old male walking through the men’s department in Macy’s, the East Valley Tribune reported.
According to police, the suspect entered the store Sunday afternoon and approached the first victim. The victim said he looked in the suspect’s direction as they passed, at which time the suspect turned around, grabbed him from behind and stabbed him in the neck with a knife.The victim turned around and said to the suspect, "What are you doing? I don’t even know you." The suspect then stabbed the victim in the shoulder three times.
Mesa police said they didn’t notify the public about Sunday’s stabbing until Monday morning because investigators didn’t have enough information, and that releasing the details would have been premature, Gascon said.Crime scene tape and a police presence at the mall Monday afternoon drew the attention of shoppers."We knew something really bad must have happened," said Rose Medina, a Fiesta Mall shopper.Mike Jorgenson, senior property manager at Fiesta Mall, said the incident only affected a small area of the mall. "Everyone’s going about their shopping," he said.
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