At least 1 person stabbed near Riverfront Park

At least one person was stabbed Thursday night near Riverfront Park, and the suspect fled to a nearby pedestrian bridge where police were trying to subdue him, according to the Spokane Police Department.

Officer Daniel Strassenberg, spokesman for the department, said a second person may have been stabbed and the status of the two victims was unknown Thursday night. The man believed to be the suspect had not been apprehended, but officers were communicating with him on the Post Street bridge.

A witness to the stabbing, 24-year-old Cody Flinn, said one of the victims was stabbed numerous times.

Flinn, who was interviewed by police, said he heard yelling and then saw the suspect punching a man before a Good Samaritan confronted the suspect and challenged him to a fight. He said the Good Samaritan threw a punch that didn’t connect, fell to the ground and the suspect repeatedly stabbed him with a “massive knife.”

Flinn said the suspect pulled the knife from a sheath and was holding the weapon in his hand prior to the second victim throwing a punch.

“I just hope he makes it, because dude was literally just trying to do the right thing,” Flinn said of the second victim who was assaulted.

The suspect, who was wearing a green sweatshirt, then walked away cursing and yelling, according to Flinn. The suspect appeared to be sitting on the Post Street bridge railing as multiple police officers stood nearby trying to coax him from the railing.

Flinn, who had just left a skate park and was on his BMX bicycle before the incident, said an officer helped the first victim on the ground before Flinn directed the officer to the suspect.

An ambulance could be seen racing south on Monroe Street near Main Avenue with a Spokane police car following. Shortly after, first responders hoisted another person on a gurney into the back of an ambulance on Spokane Falls Boulevard and Post Street near City Hall.

Yellow and red crime scene tape blocked off a sidewalk area between City Hall and Mobius Discovery Center, believed to be where the stabbing happened. An outdoor yoga class was taking place steps from the crime scene.

Bystanders looked from A Place of Truths Plaza on Spokane Falls Boulevard across the Spokane River at the scene unfolding on the Post Street bridge. The suspect appeared to still be on the bridge after 8 p.m., with police officers still communicating with him. Police eventually ordered the onlookers to leave the area, and officers closed Spokane Falls Boulevard at Post Street.

Flinn said the incident gives him more reason to carry a gun, which he did not have at the time.

“That could have been me,” he said. “That could have been any one of these people.”