An employee of Publix Supermarket on Bee Ridge Road in Sarasota is in the hospital recovering after she was stabbed by a shoplifter on Thursday morning.
Sarasota County deputies were called to the grocery store about 10:13 a.m. for reports of a shoplifting. While they were on the way, they learned it involved a stabbing.
Witnesses say the employee, a 57-year-old woman, was trying to stop a suspect from shoplifting when he stabbed her in the back of the neck. They say he then stabbed himself several times before he ran off and headed south on Maceachen Boulevard toward an apartment complex in Sarasota.
Deputies arrested the suspect and a K-9 unit found the knife used during the incident at a nearby tennis court.
The suspect and the victim were taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital. They are both in stable condition.
