Monday, August 29, 2011

Springfield, MO: Fatal stabbing investigated

A man was being questioned as a "person of interest" following the stabbing death of another man Sunday afternoon, police officials said.

At 4 p.m. Sunday, police were called to a two-story frame house in the 1300 block of West Mount Vernon Street, just east of Newton Avenue.

Springfield Police Cpl. Matt Brown said the man -- whose name was not released Sunday -- was being questioned about the incident, which is being investigated as a suspicious death.

"It's a possibility it could be upgraded to a homicide at some point," he said.

Officers who responded to the house right after the incident quickly started looking for a man wearing a dirty multi-colored top and camouflage pants. A person matching that description was found nearby a half-hour later.

Brown said because the investigation was in its early stages, he couldn't say much about what led to the man's death. The name, age and other information about the man weren't released Sunday.

But people who said they were inside the two-story frame house told the News-Leader that three people were stabbed during what they called a domestic dispute.

Ronda Cruse said she was in the house with her boyfriend when another man confronted the couple.

"He snapped," she said.

Cruse said her boyfriend was killed, and she and another person were also stabbed with a long knife.

By Sunday evening, members of the department's Criminal Investigation Division had taken over the crime scene from patrol officers.

For much of the late afternoon, a two-block stretch of Mount Vernon was closed to traffic as officers responded to the stabbing report and set up a perimeter around the house where the incident occurred.

Brown said he had information that at least one other person had suffered stab wounds, but he had no further information.

At one point, paramedics treated a woman who later emerged from an ambulance with bandages on her left leg.

As she sat in a chair, officers interviewed her.

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