Brittany SherrillA Graysville, Tenn., woman is in stable condition with a collapsed lung after she was stabbed in the neck and chest in an abandoned parking lot on Halloween.
Police found 29-year-old Amanda Estep in her home off Burnett Street, bleeding from the neck, around 9:15 p.m., Graysville Police Chief Thomas Mahoney said. Officers interviewed her only briefly before she passed out and was rushed to Erlanger hospital in Chattanooga, he said.
Police in the town of about 1,700 were fortunate to locate a suspect quickly, Mahoney said.
Officers arrested 22-year-old Brittany Sherrill and charged her with aggravated assault, the chief said.
She is in custody in the Rhea County Jail under a $25,000 bond, a jail employee said.
"This sort of violence is not something we are used to," Mahoney said. "We're tickled we were able to make an arrest so quickly."
Police believe Estep and Sherrill got into a fight in the parking lot of a closed restaurant with three other people around.
During the fight, police believe, Sherrill pulled out a knife and stabbed Estep four times, once in the neck, twice in the chest and once a hand, Mahoney said.
The chief said he wasn't aware of any other weapons being used in the fight.
Sherrill fled and Estep hobbled to her home about a block away, Mahoney said. At some point after Estep arrived home, police were called, he said.
Investigators do not know what prompted the fight and are trying to identify a motive for the attack, Mahoney said.