A 17-year-old female employee at the Carver Fleet Farm was seriously injured over the weekend when she was apparently stabbed in a random attack inside the store.
Gerald Dwayne Hudson, 31, of Kansas City, Kan., has now been charged in the attack with first- and second-degree assault involving great bodily harm with a dangerous weapon.
The incident developed on Sunday just after 2 p.m., when Carver County deputies responded to the store at 1935 Levi Griffin Road on a report of a stabbing. Prior to their arrival, police learned that the suspect, later identified as Hudson, had fled the scene in a cream-colored SUV similar to a Land Rover or Range Rover, according to charges filed in Carver County District Court on Tuesday.
Police arrived to find the teen female employee receiving aid from others inside the store. Police observed that the girl had a 2 to 3 inch laceration on the back of her neck, with entry and exit points on either side of her neck, and that she had suffered “significant” blood loss.
The victim told police she didn’t know the male who stabbed her before being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis for care. The complaint states that she was admitted in critical condition but remained stable.
A witness who was a customer at the store told police that they heard a woman scream something to the effect of, “he just stabbed me.” The witness said they saw the suspect run from the area of the scream.
Police obtained surveillance video from the store that showed Hudson enter the business at 2:03 p.m. He then walked down the aisle where the victim was located, walked past her to the end of the aisle, looked to the left and right and then walked back toward the victim. While the victim’s back was turned toward the suspect, he made a striking movement toward her. The victim then held her neck and left the aisle.
The suspect was observed on video running through the parking lot at 2:07 p.m. toward the cream-colored vehicle in which he drove away.
Police eventually located Hudson in Chanhassen and he was taken into custody. After arriving at jail, Hudson made unsolicited voluntary statements stating, “I didn’t stab anyone, I didn’t have any guns or anything like that, I just hit someone with a thing.” Hudson continued making comments, saying, “There wasn’t any kind of deadly weapon that was involved like a gun, a knife, or a bat or anything like that there was just like a quick brief conversation, and I just like, I just well hit her with a plastic thing.”
Hudson provided a post-Miranda statement and explained that he had asked the victim where an item was in the store.
“Maybe she (the victim) said something that didn’t sound right to me,” Hudson said, noting that he then picked up a “thing” and hit the victim with it. Hudson asked if the detective speaking with him was a homicide detective and asked if the victim had “passed away.”
At the time of the criminal complaint, a weapon had not yet been located by police.
Hudson had a bail hearing on Tuesday and was granted a public defender. Hudson remains in custody in Carver County Jail on $1 million bond or $100,000 cash bail. His first court appearance on the charges is scheduled for Dec. 13.
Records from the Bureau of Prisons show Hudson as an absconded fugitive since July 2020.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
