By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – A local man was stabbed in the chest late Friday night, and another man was taken into custody to be questioned about the attack.

The victim’s name was not immediately available. Police said he was stabbed in the left side of his chest, near his heart. He was taken to Central Maine Medical Center where he was reportedly in the operating room late Friday night.

When police arrived at 15 College St. about 10:30 p.m., they found the man laying on the sidewalk, bleeding heavily, and surrounded by a group of people.

While other officers responded from an earlier robbery scene, Officer Ryan Guay tended to the victim and struggled to contain a crowd of people irate about the attack. He later drove the ambulance to the hospital as paramedics treated the stabbing victim in back.

One of the victim’s friends described the assailant to police as a man who lives nearby. Police went to a building near the intersection of College and Bates streets and began searching apartments there.

As more police officers arrived, the victim’s friends began yelling to people on the upper floors of that apartment house, calling for the suspect to come outside. Police arrested a pair of men and charged them with hindering apprehension.

Police surrounded the building at College and Bates streets as they searched for the suspect. Roughly 20 minutes after the stabbing, a man matching the description of the assailant was found, handcuffed and taken to the police station.

Few details were available about the suspect’s relationship to the victim. Police said they were familiar with the suspect from earlier incidents, including one where a man reportedly stabbed himself in the same neighborhood.

By 11 p.m., the victim remained in the operating room where his wounds were reportedly described as life threatening. Police were barricading the end of College Street as their investigation continued. Detectives were being called in to join the probe.

The stabbing was the culmination of an hour of mayhem in Lewiston, with a gunpoint robbery reported at the end of Russell Street and an overdose at the Morning Star Motel on Lisbon Street.

Officers remained at those scenes, as well. Three young women were taken into custody in connection with the reported robbery in a building at the corner of Russell and Main streets.

The overdose victim from the Morning Star was unconscious when he was found, police said. His condition was not known later Friday night. Police who responded to that scene were forced to pepper spray the victim’s dog who tried to attack the officer entering the motel room.

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