A release event for new Nike sneakers Wednesday in Los Angeles took a violent turn when a brawl among people waiting in line allegedly led to a woman’s stabbing.
Soon after the incident, chaos erupted at the Los Angeles Foot Locker store where the event was being held, reported Fox News.
TMZ published a video of the incident, and reported that an eyewitness saw an argument escalate to violence. It ultimately resulted in the stabbing attack that sent a woman to the hospital and a man to jail.
The video appears to show a group of men and women fighting on the sidewalk outside the store on Melrose Avenue. A man wearing a black T-shirt is then seen jumping over a barrier and allegedly stabbing a woman with a knife. It appears that she was stabbed in the abdomen. After the incident, the suspect drove off in a Hyundai.
The suspect, Darryl Jones, is now in police custody. Police said that they arrested the 37-year-old on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon about an hour after the attack that happened at 2.20 pm. According to records, he is being held in L.A. County Jail on $115,000 bail. As for the injured woman, the 30-year-old was rushed to the hospital, but her condition is not known.
The incident took place near the area where Shawn Laval Smith allegedly stabbed Brianna Kupfer, a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) student, to death in her furniture store job at Croft House in January. Arraignment hearing for Kupfer's alleged killer was rescheduled Thursday for late April.
Los Angeles has been experiencing a sharp spike in violent crimes. Meanwhile, progressive activists are pushing to "defund police." Democratic District Attorney George Gascon is also facing a second recall petition for policies that victims’ families and critics say are too lenient on violent criminals, including convicted murderers.
Last year, Melrose Avenue faced a spike in robberies and shootings. A local Shoe Palace employee was shot to death in an alleged dispute over a raffle in the crime wave. As more crime incidents started happening, the community group Melrose Action raised money to install license plate readers in the area.
