Online conversations precipitated an attack on a 14-year-old girl in Bedford that sent her to hospital with stab wounds Monday, police say.
A girl was stabbed in the chest just before 7:30 p.m. Monday in Fish Hatchery Park behind Cascades Spa on the Bedford Highway, following a pre-arranged meeting between two groups of girls, police say.
The victim was taken to the IWK Health Centre with wounds described by police as non-life threatening.
Three or four other girls fled the park when police arrived.
“It’s very clear to us that we’re investing a criminal act,” Halifax regional police spokeswoman Theresa Rath said.
Police say the stabbing was the result of an altercation between two groups that began on the Internet.
They seized the computer belonging to the 14-year-old girl victim and spoke to her today, but say they still have little information on the incident and have yet to identify the girls who fled the park Monday night.
Police are also exploring whether the victim’s 14-year-old friend may also have been assaulted.
“We are going on very limited information from the victim and her friend,” Rath said.
Police have also recovered two knives, one of which was spotted by a CTV journalist next to a sidewalk on nearby Union Street yesterday. Police are still investigating whether it’s connected to the incident.
Rath said the incident is “alarming.”
“It’s very shocking and disconcerting for both police and the community,” she said.
“Social networking websites are certainly changing the way we do business as police. We have to be in tune to what’s happening on such sites as Facebook,” Rath told CTV news.
Police are asking anyone with information, knowledge of the girls’ communication or how they knew each other to call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
