MIDDLETOWN – The stabbing of a man in Middletown late Sunday afternoon prompted a large police presence for several hours as officers attempted to have a suspect in a stabbing come out of a barber shop he was believed to have run in to.
Middletown City and State Police converged on 8 Prospect Street with guns drawn and periodically announcing over a bullhorn for the person to come out. There was no response and around 7:30 p.m. the Orange County Sheriff’s SWAT team with a large contingent of officers in tactical gear entering the building. A short time later they came out and gave an all-clear signal.
The victim had staggered outside the Middletown Fried Chicken restaurant around the corner on East Main, bleeding profusely from his arm. Michael Lawrence of Middletown, who is an EMT, was having dinner with a friend. As they left, the man was outside bleeding and telling them someone was trying to kill him.
Lawrence quickly attending to him until paramedics arrived and took him to the hospital.
“I have a pretty decent amount of experience in EMS so I have seen these kinds of situations before. I saw the amount of blood that he had and how fast it was coming out. I knew that bleeding had to be stopped immediately. That was a definite life threat, he told Mid-Hudson News on the scene.
There was no one in the building when the SWAT team entered so the police operation was concluded.
The victim was believed to have been uncooperative with police, who believe the stabbing may have been the result of an argument between two men.
