Employee stabbed at Alderwood Mall food court, suspect in custody

LYNNWOOD, Wash.  -- An Alderwood Mall employee was stabbed Sunday afternoon at the mall's food court. A 37-year-old suspect is in custody, according to Lynnwood police.

Police say the suspect got into a confrontation with the mall employee about 1:51 p.m., moments before the stabbing.

"What we're hearing was that it was an unhappy customer at the food court restaurant who became disruptive and violent," said Lynnwood Fire Battalion Chief Jason Turner.

The victim was transported to Harborview Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries, police said.

A man in his mid-30s who intervened during the assault also received a small cut, police said. Two other people were hurt while fleeing the incident, Lynnwood Fire officials said.

Witnesses say after the incident, chaos erupted.

"Everybody was trying to squeeze out of the exit door, and I was shoved from behind and I fell on the floor, and I didn't know at the time, but underneath me was a little girl," said Camela Manfredi, who was eating at the Blazing Onion nearby at the time.

She said her boyfriend, Javier Regalado even helped to secure the gate of Blazing Onion after the stabbing incident.

"I saw people getting up, so I just ran to see what was going on," said Regalado. "Then I saw a guy on the floor with blood in his hands."

Q13 News received several reports that people had been turned away from the mall and that some stores were on lockdown during the incident. At 4 p.m., at least part of the mall remained open.

Several police departments also assisted Lynnwood.




This is the second stabbing at the mall within months. On Christmas Eve, a man in his 30s was stabbed as he tried to intervene in a fight between two teens. A mall worker said he noticed security had beefed up since the Christmas Eve stabbing.

"Since the first one, they've had a lot of mall security around, so they stepped it up quite a bit there, and they had officers hanging out in the parking lot and stuff to keep a presence around," said Mitchell Pell, who works at Alderwood Mall.