Woman Dies After Pittsburgh Bus Stop Stabbing

August 9, 2019 4:08 am

PITTSBURGH – (WPXI) – One woman is dead and another is injured after a double stabbing on Thursday at a bus stop in downtown Pittsburgh. Around 11:30 a.m., an officer approached a woman who appeared to be sleeping at the bus shelter outside Burlington Coat Factory on Sixth Avenue. “It looked like he was helping her. Then the man came around on the same street and stabbed her in the neck,” Kimberly Andrews, a witness who happened to be walking by, said. After that, the man went after another woman who was walking by, authorities said. Police believe the second woman was wearing a hijab; however, they said the attack does not appear to have been racially or religiously motivated. “It seems by all accounts a random act of violence. Thankfully, we had an officer that was on-scene when the incident happened who took appropriate action,” Pittsburgh Police Major Crimes Commander Victor Joseph said. Pittsburgh police have charged James Wyatt, 23, of McKeesport, (pictured)  with criminal homicide and aggravated assault. He is in the Allegheny County Jail. The woman who had been talking to the officer before she was stabbed in the neck died at the hospital, police said. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the woman as Janice Purdue-Dance, 61, of Erie. The second woman is still being treated.