… Two men stabbed, robbed Saturday at West Patapsco station …

baltimoresun.com

By Nick Madigan and Michael Dresser, The Baltimore Sun

6:12 PM EDT, July 19, 2011

Baltimore County police are investigating a stabbing attack and robbery Saturday on two men at the light rail station on West Patapsco Avenue near Cherry Hill.

It was the second robbery at the station in two weekend nights, according to the Maryland Transit Administration.

In the Saturday incident, the two men, one 27 years old and the other 19, were walking to a bus when they were confronted by a group of people, police said in a statement about the incident. “Both victims were stabbed multiple times and had their cell phones and other personal property taken during the robbery,” the police account said.

A third man tried to intervene to stop the robbery and was punched. The 45-year-old man did not require medical treatment, police said.

After the attack, the youngest of the three victims boarded an MTA bus and left the station, ultimately seeking help at a firehouse. He and the other stabbing victim were taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center. They were treated for their injuries and released, police said.

The person believed to be responsible for the stabbings was described as a youth, about 16 or 17 years old. He and the group with him fled before police officers arrived and were last seen headed on foot toward Cherry Hill.

Detectives retrieved surveillance photographs of two people who may have been involved and are asking for the public’s help in identifying them. Terry Owens, an MTA spokesman, said the video was captured by cameras aboard a bus.

Owens said that up to this weekend, crime has not been a big issue at the Patapsco station, an important transit hub that straddles the city-county line near Lansdowne. He said that before a robbery Friday night and the incident Saturday, there had been six property crimes and no violent crimes reported at the station so far this year.

Last year there were five serious crimes reported at the station, Owens said. Four of them, three robberies and a purse-snatching, were cleared by arrests by the MTA police, he added.

Saturday’s incident took place on MTA property but was handled by the county police because they were the first to arrive at the scene, he said. Owens said that while some stations are equipped with video surveillance, Patapsco is not.

nick.madigan@baltsun.com