BRAINTREE — A male suspect has been arrested in connection with the stabbing of four young girls at an AMC movie theater in South Boston on Saturday, authorities said. CBS Boston has learned the same suspect may also be involved in a similar incident at a McDonald’s in Plymouth.
According to a statement from the Braintree Police Department, a man stabbed four girls around 6pm local time inside an AMC multiplex theater in Braintree, about 12 miles south of Boston.
Police said the man entered the multiplex without a ticket, then entered the cinema and attacked four girls, ages 9 to 17, for no apparent reason. The girls were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
“It was very heartbreaking and what I thought about all night was kids coming down the stairs crying, they looked really freaked out, like they’d seen a horror movie, not a kids movie,” said Matteo Rojas, who was at the theater when the stabbing happened.
An AMC employee who was working in the snack area at the time of the attack said the suspect was wearing an “oversized trench coat, sunglasses and a long blonde wig.”
according to Braintree Police Four girls under the age of 17 were stabbed inside the theater. @AMCTheatres It happened around 6pm in Braintree, Massachusetts. All four are expected to be safe. The suspect was reportedly involved in a “similar assault” in Plymouth shortly after the incident. translation: pic.twitter.com/2DQk5Fx4Tx
— Laura Haefeli (@LauraHaefeli) May 26, 2024
The suspect fled the scene in a black SUV, but police obtained the suspect’s license plate number from video footage and located him in Plymouth, where he had been reported to have been involved in a “similar assault.” CBS Boston reported that the second attack may have happened at about 7pm at a McDonald’s restaurant, where a 21-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man were allegedly stabbed. Both victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries and are being treated at a nearby hospital. Police said the “crimes appear to be related.”
“Preliminary investigation suggests the incident may be linked to an earlier incident at a movie theater in Braintree that resulted in non-life-threatening injuries to four juveniles,” Massachusetts State Police said in a statement.
The suspect was pursued by Massachusetts State Police and crashed in the town of Sandwich, south of Plymouth. He was taken into custody and is currently undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital.
David Curran / SatelitteNewsService.com
Sources told the WBZ-TV I-Team that the suspect is also believed to be connected to a murder investigation in Deep River, Conn. Sources said Connecticut State Police issued an alert for the suspect early Saturday morning, describing him as armed and dangerous and possibly carrying a 10-inch knife.
The suspect’s name and the charges against him were not immediately released.
