Athlete stabbed in Eagle Commons

10.29.09 / News / By Julia Nene

CLARION, Pa., Oct. 28 – While children in Clarion enjoyed their Wednesday night trick-or-treating, a different kind of commotion happened on campus. The Chandler Dining Hall in the Eagle Commons was the site of a stabbing around 6:20 p.m.

Students in the building were on cell phones, as they continued to walk in and out the doors. Eagle Common’s staff attempted to keep students away from the victim, who was sitting in a chair in the upstairs lobby, as workers frantically attempted to stop the victim’s bleeding that appeared to be coming from a leg wound.

“You could tell a fight was about to break out,” said sophomore molecular biology and art major Alex McConnell, who was in the dining hall at the time of the incident. “It got really loud and people started crowding around. There was a little pushing and shoving, but then sure enough the ambulance showed up,” said McConnell. “I was going to take up my tray when the (medical professional) was wrapping his injury,” said McConnell.

“I saw people fighting and people were trying to say ‘stop it’, and there was blood on the floor,” said sophomore secondary science education major Kayla Smith, who witnessed the incident.

University Police Chief Glenn Reid said, when freshman LeVaughn Robinson of Penn Hills was leaving the dining hall, he apparently shoved freshman Dan Wyant of Erie. When Wyant got up off the floor, he had a knife and stabbed Robinson twice in the leg. The knife was larger than a pocket knife.

Both students were taken to the Clarion Hospital where they were treated and expected to be released.

“Apparently it was an ongoing personal argument between the two,” said Ron Wilshire, director of university relations. “Additional police were called in to be safe and sure,” said Wilshire.

District Attorney Mark Aaron was also present to conduct interviews.

University Police were the first to arrive at the scene with two vehicles, followed by two ambulances. Borough and State Police, as well as the Knox K-9 unit assisted at the scene.
“This is under investigation,” said University Police Sergeant Frank Remmick.

Emergency text alerts were not sent to students because the incident did not pose a threat to the entire student body, said Wilshire. It was an isolated altercation between the two students involved.

Julia Nene was the news editor of The Call. She graduated in 2009.

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