After a Prince George’s County sheriff’s deputy was stabbed on Monday in College Park, the officer is said to be recovering and the suspect is in custody.
Cpl. Nicholas Romanchick, who was stabbed in the face while responding to a distress call, suffered a broken jaw and a few fractures, The Washington Post reported. The suspect, Busara Kennedy of College Park, was arrested and faces charges of attempted first- and second-degree murder, as well as first- and second-degree assault.
Romanchick was one of three deputies responding to an emergency petition report — which calls for officials to take a mentally ill or distressed person to a facility for a mental health evaluation — early that morning. A district judge had ordered Kennedy to receive a mental evaluation after relatives expressed fear that he might kill himself or hurt someone else, according to the Prince George’s County Sheriff’s blog.
The deputies arrived at the 6900 block of Carleton Terrace off Route 1 in College Park — located near the University of Maryland’s campus — early Monday morning to respond to the report. When they got there, Kennedy’s relatives said he was in the attic, and that he was hypoglycemic and hadn’t eaten, the blog said.
When the deputies knocked on the attic door, Kennedy swung it open and hit Romanchick in the face with a military-grade serrated edged knife, the blog said. Romanchick was transported to Washington Hospital Center, the Post reported, and he has since been released, WTOP reported.
Kennedy went back into the attic after a brief struggle, and later climbed out of the attic and onto the roof, the blog read. He eventually ate and agreed to come down from the roof, and he was taken into custody and brought to the Prince George’s County hospital.
