NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—New Brunswick Police Department (NBPD) responded to the scene of a stabbing that occurred during a fight between five to seven individuals at 1am on February 21, and arrived to find two men “bleeding profusely,” according to a department press release.
The incident occurred outside the Holy Virgin Protection Church at 301 Handy Street, a Russian Orthodox house of worship in the city’s Fourth Ward, near the Salvation Army between Joyce Kilmer Avenue and the railroad tracks.
One ambulance was dispatched and another quickly followed after it was clear there were “multiple victims” and “traumatic arrest post-stabbing,” according to emergency radio transmissions.
Both victims underwent surgery at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and are expected to recover, in part thanks to a New Brunswick police officer who performed cardiopulmonary resucitation (CPR) on one of the victims.
“One of the victims… was found to have a stab wound to the chest,” reads the NBPD release. Â “Officer Sean Freeman Freman determined that [the victim] was not breathing and did not have a pulse.”
 “He immediately began CPR… and was able to regain a pulse and breathing until EMS personnel arrived and transported both victims to the hospital.”
Another victim, also a city man, “received a stab wound to the right side of his torso.”  Police named the victims in the release, but did not give their ages.
It is not clear how many suspects police are looking for, but the release said they were all described as Hispanic males. According to the statement, everyone else involved in the original brawl “fled prior to the police officers’ arrival.”
A report on News 12 New Jersey said that “at least a portion” of the violence was caught on a surveillance camera attached to the house next door.
“Every other Saturday night there’s always something crazy going on in the streets, whether it’s fighting, people yelling, arguing.” said a neighborhor interviewed by the TV station.
As New Brunswick Today reported, assaults with knives or “cutting instruments” occur on at least a weekly basis in the Hub City, with a startling 59 such incidents in 2015, an increase of 157% versus just two years earlier.
Anyone with information regarding this particular incident is asked to call NBPD Detective Brandt Gregus at (732) 745-5217.Â
Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.
