The 14-year-old boy lay covered in blood on a loveseat. He'd been stabbed 14 times -- in the stomach, chest and arms. "Everywhere," he told a Columbia Heights police officer.
Boy who claimed abuse was stabbed 14 times
A Hilltop man has been charged with attempted murder after a knife attack on the 14-year-old boy.
By PAUL LEVY, Star Tribune
June 17, 2008 at 2:51AM
The boy, who would need surgery to repair a lacerated liver and damaged lung, asked officer Paul Bonesteel "not to let him die."
Sitting on the floor, also covered in blood but alive, was a 35-year-old man, a relative of the boy. Several of his 10 stab wounds, apparently self-inflicted, were to the left side of the chest. There were multiple slashes to his neck. A 3-inch- long knife rested in his lap.
The man, Jose Pena, 35, who apparently tried to commit suicide after stabbing the boy, has been charged with attempted first-degree murder in the June 9 incident.
According to an Anoka County Sheriff's report, the boy complained to his mother that Pena tried to touch him inappropriately two days before the stabbings occurred in Hilltop, a small city within the boundaries of Columbia Heights.
The boy, who had been in critical condition, is expected to survive. The Anoka County Sheriff's Office was not certain Monday whether he remained hospitalized.
Pena, who had been released from Hennepin County Medical Center, was in the Anoka County jail Monday.
According to the sheriff's report, the boy's mother and Pena argued in Pena's bedroom, with Pena telling her that he would kill the boy if she called the police about the allegations that he tried to touch the boy. The children were in the front room of the manufactured home. The mother went into the room, hoping to get them out of the home, she told police. But Pena followed her.
Pena then reached into his back pocket, brandished a knife and announced, "I will kill" the boy, the boy's younger sister told police. Pena then stabbed the boy -- three times in the stomach, three times in the back, once in the chest, four times to the right arm and once to the left arm.
Pena calmly said he was sorry, the boy told authorities, and then repeatedly stabbed himself. Pena admitted Friday to stabbing the 14-year-old, the report said.
His initial court appearance had not been scheduled.
Paul Levy • 612-673-4419
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PAUL LEVY, Star Tribune
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