OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — A 16-year-old boy was stabbed while taking out the trash Friday morning at an Overland Park apartment complex, police said.
Officers were called out just after 9:30 a.m. to the 7800 block of Grant Lane in the Village View Apartments on a reported stabbing.
Jo Ann Voice saw as paramedics loaded a 16-year-old boy into an ambulance.
"We all take our trash out and I mean it’s very frightening," Voice said.
The manhunt for the suspect sent Comanche Elementary and Shawnee Mission West High School into a brief lockdown.
"I mean who would want to stab a 16-year-old? What do they have to gain from it? They can’t rob him he surely didn’t have anything taking out the trash," Olga Tolan, a neighbor said.
At the victim's apartment building there were signs of the violent aftermath.
Police said the victim reportedly knew the suspect, who was described as a male wearing blue jeans, a black hoodie and a black ski mask.
Police said the teenage boy is expected to survive.
"Everybody moves here because it's quiet and it's better than living in a different area," Tolan said.
The stabbing follows a deadly shooting last week in the 8000 block of Farley Street, where a 17-year-old was shot and killed. Then on Wednesday night, a 16-year-old was injured in a shooting at 79th and Farley streets.
Police do not believe any of them are connected.
"All three are separate incidents so we are up here, we’re trying to figure out what’s going on, each incident is separate so that’s what I will tell you right now regarding this particular incident," Officer John Lacy, spokesperson for the Overland Park Police Department, said.
The three scenes are within a half-mile of each other.
"There have been some break-ins of cars and petty stuff like that but I’ve never seen any of this violence and it scares me," Voice said.
The rash of violence in this pocket of Overland Park has rattled Voice who's lived in the area for more than a decade.
"I told my friends after I left and they said are you thinking of moving? Yeah. I certainly am if people are getting stabbed and shot in the neighborhood," Voice said.
Anyone with information in the stabbing is asked to contact the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS.
