TAUNTON, MASS. (WHDH) - Police have arrested a woman in connection with a “random and unprovoked” stabbing attack outside a hospital in Taunton on Tuesday afternoon that left a healthcare worker injured, officials announced Wednesday.
Victoria Disharoon, 28, of Taunton, is slated to be arraigned Thursday in Taunton District Court on charges including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to the Taunton Police Department.
Officers responding to a reported stabbing at Morton Hospital around 1:40 p.m. spoke to the 44-year-old victim who said she was outside on a break on the North Pleasant Street side of the hospital when a woman walked up behind her, pulled her ponytail, and punched her several times in the back, police said.
After she was able to get away and report the alleged assault to a fellow employee, it was discovered that she had suffered multiple puncture wounds on her shoulders and neck from the attack, police said. She has since been treated and released from the hospital.
The victim told police that she did not know Disharoon and that the assault appeared “completely random and unprovoked.” She was able to take a photo of Disharoon as she fled the scene on foot.
Earlier Wednesday, police released the photo of Disharoon, which led to multiple tips from the public and from an outside police agency.
7NEWS has learned that the victim just started working at the hospital as a secretary two weeks ago.
“It was just a freak accident,” hospital worker Mike Fraga said. “I’ve never heard of anything like that happening around here…It’s scary.”
Jacqueline Fitts, Chair of the Morton Hospital Nurses Union, says safety around the facility has been a major concern for the last year.
“We have been asking administration for a year now to make the property safer, to cover the parking lot with security because there is a lot of people passing in and out of the area,” Fitts said. “Our nurses and other staff go outside for breaks.”
Fitts noted that the hospital has seen a spike in psychiatric patients and violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.
An investigation remains ongoing.
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