Washington Man Stabs Dog, Multiple People Including 4-Year-Old Child, Arrested

A man was taken into custody after he went on a stabbing spree and injured multiple people and a dog in Spokane Valley, Washington, Sunday morning.

The accused, identified as 43-year-old James Neill, was seated at a table inside a residence reading a Bible when he suddenly got up and walked up to a man in his 60s before injuring him with a large knife. Luckily, the elderly man escaped and started yelling to warn others. Just then, another man in his 40s exited a bedroom. When he attempted to disarm the accused, he was stabbed in the arm.

The accused then broke into another bedroom where a woman and a four-year-old boy were sleeping. He stabbed the boy in the torso. Just when he was about to injure the woman, the second victim entered the bedroom and hit the accused with a crowbar. Neill managed to flee the residence in a stolen car from the first victim. While fleeing the scene, the accused slashed the back of a dog.

The residents alerted the police. A deputy saw the accused driving the stolen car half an hour after he fled the residence. This led to a chase, and a while later, the accused lost control of the vehicle, which fell into a ditch on the roadside. The man, however, managed to break out of the window and fled the scene on foot. Shortly after that, he surrendered to the police.

Spokane County Sheriff's Corporal Mark Gregory told CBS-affiliated television station KREM that all the victims, including the child and the canine, were expected to make a full recovery.

Meanwhile, the man was charged with multiple offenses including assault of a child, animal cruelty, theft of a motor vehicle and attempting to elude a police vehicle. He was being held at the Spokane County Jail.

Though the reason behind the crime was not known, KOMO News reported that the man had been using methamphetamine and had trouble sleeping. Investigation into the incident was ongoing and it was not clear if the victims were related to the accused.