AUBURN – Police from Auburn and Lewiston swarmed on the Big Apple on Main Street late Friday after a man was reported stabbed in the chest outside the store.
The man, said to be a local man in his early 20s, stumbled toward the front of the store bleeding from a wound on the side of his chest, witnesses told police.
The man was talking on a pay phone at the side of the store when he was stabbed, police at the scene said. It was unclear what led to the attack, but investigators said they believe a confrontation between the two men may have started at another location.
About 10:15 p.m., police officers who had been working at the balloon festival were sent to the Main Street store when the stabbing was first reported.
Police initially believed the suspect may have fled across the foot bridge over the Androscoggin River and into Lewiston. However, witnesses told police they last saw the attacker running away from the Big Apple toward Newbury Street and Laurel Avenue.
More than a half-dozen officers from both cities headed in that direction while paramedics lifted the man into an ambulance and other officers spoke with witnesses.
An hour after the stabbing, the victim was heading into surgery at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. His wound was believed to be serious, but the extent of it was not immediately known, Auburn police Lt. Gary Boulet said.
The search for the suspect was continuing late Friday night. Police from both cities were at the scene in cruisers, on foot, on bicycles and motorcycles and in one case, a golf cart.
Lewiston police Sgt. David St. Pierre and Officer Richard Stanton raced to the scene from that city on the golf cart they had been using at the balloon festival.
Auburn police remained at the scene late into the night. Detective James Lawlor was sent to the store where he was processing evidence. The area around the front and side of the Big Apple was cordoned off with crime scene tape and most customers were turned away. Only those purchasing gas with a credit or fuel card at the pumps were able to do business there.
At 11:15 p.m., police were checking a home on Laurel Avenue after receiving a tip that the suspect might be there. Investigators had a tentative identification of the suspect – an Auburn man said to be 22 or 23 years old.
Witnesses said the attacker was dressed entirely in black when he stabbed the victim and that he was wearing a black nose ring. An hour and a half after the stabbing was reported, the suspect remained at large.
It was the second stabbing in two days in Auburn.
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