FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. –– Police are searching for a man they
say stabbed a U.S. Air Force recruiter Tuesday at the Armed Forces
Career Center on Lincoln Highway.
The victim, a 27-year-old recruiter who was stabbed in the thigh with
scissors, was treated at Memorial Hospital in Belleville and released.
Police said that about 9:20 a.m. a man went into the Air Force office
at the career center at 525 Lincoln Highway and sat down in a chair.
The victim emerged from the back room and asked the man if he was
interested in joining the military, according to Fairview Heights Police
Lt. John Proffitt.
When the recruiter turned around to get paperwork, the man then
lunged at him with scissors and stabbed him, Proffitt said. The
assailant fled.
Police used a K9 unit to search for the attacker, but the effort was not
successful. Proffitt said police don't know who the attacker is, they
don't have any major leads, and they don't know the motive. The police
lieutenant described the attacker as a black man who is approximately 20
years old and was wearing a red ball cap, a red shirt and dark pants.
The victim was alone at the time but able to fend off the attacker
and call for help, according to Lt. Col. Chris Byrom, commander of the
345th Recruiting Squadron at Scott Air Force Base. The victim is part of
that squadron. Byrom and Proffitt declined to say how the recruiter
fought off the attacker.