man suffers ‘deep penetrating stab wound’ in East Washington Street attack

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A Hagerstown man has been arrested after another individual suffered a “deep penetrating stab wound” during a fight in a parking lot at East Washington Street and South Cannon Avenue last week, according to police.

The area is in a neighborhood where residents have been complaining about loitering, crime like drug possession, panhandling and homelessness. The Hagerstown Police Department has responded by proactively patrolling the area.

Arrested in Thursday’s incident was Camara Jones, 30, of South Mulberry Street. Jones, who is being held without bond, is charged with attempted second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault and reckless endangerment, according to Washington County District Court records.

How did it happen?

Thursday around 7 p.m., city police and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Sheetz store at the intersection for a fight in which a person stabbed.

Surveillance camera footage showed two people fighting in the parking lot, Hagerstown Police Officer T. Wheat said in a criminal complaint filed in Washington County District Court.

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A deputy at the scene said he found a male — identified as Hunter Parsons — with a stab wound to his right torso, and surveillance cameras showed a suspect fleeing toward Matthews Avenue across the street. Parsons told another officer he was having trouble breathing and the officer applied a “chest seal” to the victim’s stab wound until medics arrived, according to the complaint.

Parsons was taken to Meritus Medical Center east of Hagerstown, where medical staff reported he suffered a “deep penetrating wound” to the right torso near his kidney.

The victim told officers at the hospital that he had encountered the attacker two days before in an alley off East Antietam Street, when the suspect insisted Parsons owed him money.

Parsons said the suspect pulled a knife at that time, but left when an officer went by.

Parsons told police he has never had any interactions with the man and didn’t know him. Wheat said Parsons recently underwent open heart surgery and was using a colostomy bag during the incident in the alley and at the Sheetz.

How were police able to find a suspect?

After Parsons was stabbed, surveillance cameras showed a person matching the description of the assailant walking on East Baltimore Street from King Street and entering a liquor store at South Mulberry and East Baltimore streets. Then he walked into a house in the 200 block of South Mulberry Street.

Officers surrounded the house and spoke to a female there. Due to the fact that there were a number of children in the house, officers decided to enter and found the suspect on the second floor. Wheat said the man initially gave officers a fake name, but he was later identified as Jones.

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Later during questioning at the Hagerstown Police Department, Jones told police that the incident occurred when he saw a person at the Sheetz whom he believed sexually assaulted his son on South Potomac Street earlier in the day. Jones said the man had assaulted him, although Jones acknowledged later in the interview that he assaulted the individual.

When police asked Jones about Parsons’ stab wounds, Jones denied any involvement. Jones, who previously lived in Washington, D.C., but who has been living with his wife at the South Mulberry Street home for two years, told police that he was on parole and he’s not allowed to have a weapon.

Police showed Jones surveillance footage which showed Jones clenching something that appears to be a knife during the incident, according to the complaint. It shows Jones swinging his arm in a stabbing motion and the victim attempting to get away, it said.

Officers later searched the South Mulberry Street home where Jones was found and discovered a blue-and-black folding knife with dried blood on it, according to the complaint.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Hagerstown stabbing results in one arrest

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