Man charged in stabbing within Hempfield high-rise apartment elevator

HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A man is recovering after police say he was stabbed in the elevator of Hempfield Towers, a high-rise apartment in Hempfield Township.

“Unreal. Unreal,” Sherry Meighan said of the stabbing. Her brother-in-law is the man who was stabbed. “I have very much fear, and I want out of here.”

Police have charged Timothy Wetzel in the stabbing.

Troopers say they responded to the call on Sunday and found Wetzel kneeling in front of a bench with his hands in the air. A knife was on the bench.

A trooper had to use a tourniquet on the victim to stop the bleeding.

“The guy had stabbed him in his main artery of his leg,” Meighan told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek. “So, they had to do surgery immediately or he would have bled to death.”

According to court documents, a witness was in the elevator when the stabbing happened. She told police Wetzel attacked the victim “for seemingly no reason at all.”

“There’s no reason why we would think these two have ever had any type of argument between the two of them,” said Trooper Steve Limani of the Pennsylvania State Police. “It seems that it was very random, and alcohol had a lot to do with this.”

Others who live at Hempfield Towers say the fact that this happened in their building is terrifying.

“Safety in this building, they go out of their way to make this a safe place to live, but it’s society,” said Charles Chalfant, who has lived at Hempfield Towers for 14 years. “This could happen anywhere, and unfortunately it happened here.”

Meighan said she’s glad her brother-in-law is going to be okay.

“I’m very thankful, and I’m grateful that the guy went to jail, where he needs to be,” she said.

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