WESTFIELD – City police are investigating a slashing incident on Franklin Street which was reported three days after it occurred.
Police report that a Noble Hospital emergency department nurse called at 1:39 p.m. Tuesday to report that a patient had presented with an apparent knife wound which she told the staff was inflicted on Saturday evening.
Officer Harry Sienkiewicz was dispatched to the hospital and reports that the physician treating the woman said that his examination suggested that the woman had been punched and had also suffered a wound consistent with a slashing attack with a knife.
He also said that the woman appeared to have at least one broken rib.
Sienkiewicz spoke with the victim who said that she had walked to a Franklin Street package store Saturday evening and said she encountered a “Spanish” man on her way home who, she said, slashed her with a knife.
She told Sienkiewicz that she “doesn’t like” Spanish men and said that she may have said something to him before he attacked her.
Due to the darkness, the woman said, she could not provide a description of her assailant.
When asked, the victim told Sienkiewicz that she had been drinking vodka that day.
Det. Sgt. Steven K. Dickinson said that he suspects there is more to the story than police have been told and said that the investigation was assigned to Det. Brian Freeman.
Freeman said that that there are “no witnesses, no evidence” to the incident and said “she says she was intoxicated when it happened.”
However, Freeman said, “it definitely did not happen on Saturday.”
Freeman reports that she definitely does have a wound but it is not a puncture would which would result from a stabbing and is in an unlikely place for a slashing.
He said that the woman’s wound is high on the left side of her chest so her arm would have had to be raised to be slashed there.
In addition, the woman has four broken ribs in the same area which would suggest blunt force trauma at the same site as the wound.
Freeman also found that the woman’s clothing had not been cut.
He said that the victim cannot describe her assailant other than to say he was a “Spanish man” but could not say what makes him appear to be “Spanish.”
