WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - A suspect was ordered held without bail Wednesday in connection with a reported stabbing at a Clark University gym on Tuesday.
Police said officers responded around 6:30 p.m. to a basketball court inside the gym in the area of Downing Street. Once on scene, police said officers found two male stabbing victims with serious injuries. They were taken to an area hospital.
Court proceedings on Wednesday revealed one of the injured people was stabbed in the back. The other person slipped in and out of consciousness after suffering injuries to the arm and ribs and needed a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, officials said.
Police and Clark University officials said neither the people who were stabbed nor the person who was arrested appeared to be Clark students.
7NEWS spoke with a graduate student who said he is friends with student athletes who were working out in the gym at the time of this incident.
The student, Quinn Berube, said his friends saw a pickup basketball game being played and believed the stabbing was connected to the game.
While Berube said people on campus weren’t particularly concerned since students didn’t appear to be involved, he said this kind of violence on campus is still alarming.
“I think it’s very shocking but, honestly, in today’s world, you can’t really be surprised about these things anymore especially happening on campuses,” Berube said. “I think we’re just lucky that not more people were injured.”
Some officers were seen still on campus as of around 9 p.m. Tuesday
In an update later Tuesday night, police said the two people who were stabbed were 17 and 23 years old.
Police said officers speaking with witnesses determined the fight started during a basketball game.
Police also publicly identified the person who was arrested as Knowledge Bethea, 18.
Bethea is now facing charges including two counts of armed assault to murder and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to police.
New cell phone video on Wednesday showed the police response Tuesday night.
In court hours later, the suspect’s defense attorney asked that his client be kept out of sight during the arraignment.
“Do we have an identification issue?” a judge asked.
“Potentially yes your honor,” Defense Attorney Darren Griffis said.
Obscured by a door, the suspect listened as the prosecutor said they know they have the right person in custody, saying he was found nearby with blood on him, with a bloody knife in his backpack inside his mother’s car.
The suspect’s family and attorney had nothing to say after court.
Elsewhere, Clark students shared their thoughts.
“It’s a building on a campus of a college and so the fact that someone could just walk in with a knife is really scary to me,” said Clark University Sophomore Charlie Mintzer. “I don’t like that.”
The suspect in this case is due back in court next week.
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