Armed woman with concealed carry license stops suspect in fatal supermarket stabbing attack of 85-year-old man

A suspect fatally stabbed an 85-year-old man at a grocery store on Wednesday afternoon — but a quick-thinking woman with a concealed carry pistol stopped the suspect from fleeing the scene of the crime.

The incident took place at a Meijer supermarket in Adrian, Michigan.

What are the details?

According to the Daily Telegram, the 29-year-old male suspect stabbed an elderly gentleman in the head and neck several times with a knife believed to have been taken from the supermarket. The elderly man died at the scene.

Police arrived on the scene after a 12:30 p.m. call about a stabbing in progress.

Before police could arrive, an unnamed woman with a concealed carry pistol trained her weapon on the suspect and demanded he get on the floor until officers arrived.

The police were able to take the suspect without incident, the Daily Telegram reported. The suspect's knife was later found on one of the shelves.

Adrian Police Chief Vincent Emrick said that a motive in the violent attack has not been determined.

"At this time, we're reviewing video footage from the store surveillance cameras as well as cellphone camera footage from witnesses at the scene," Emrick said. "We know [the victim and the assailant] came in separately, but that's pretty much all we know at this point."

Emrick added, "This is an unthinkable incident, and we're all adapting as best we can and they've been very cooperative. We had cordoned off the area, we're keeping people out of the general merchandise side where it occurred, keeping them over on the grocery end for now until we can get the scene processed."

'They were screaming and running out the front door'

One witness told the Daily Telegram that she and her husband were in line at the grocery store when they heard screaming from the rear of the store.

"Then," the woman said, "I see some employees start running and then I see people running from the back. They were screaming and running out the front door."

The woman said that she and her husband were at the rear of the store just minutes before the attack took place.

Anyone with information related to the fatal attack is asked to contact Adrian Police Department Sgt. LaMar Rufner at 517-264-4808.