A knife-wielding New Jersey supermarket employee chased down a colleague and stabbed her multiple times during an in-store attack, officials said.
Melissa Prince, 57, of Edison, was arrested Sunday at a ShopRite in Clark, where she stabbed her co-worker in the deli department following an “altercation,” police said in a statement Monday.
The victim, who was not publicly identified, was rushed to a hospital in Newark for treatment. She was listed in critical but stable condition, Clark police said. No other injuries were reported.
Responding cops took Prince into custody without further incident. She was later charged with first-degree attempted murder, second-degree aggravated assault and weapons possession counts, police said.
“The suspect is being detained pending a first appearance hearing,” Clark police said Monday.
A spokesperson for the Union County Prosecutor’s Office referred inquiries early Tuesday to Clark police. A message seeking additional comment from cops was not immediately returned.
Prince allegedly stabbed her fellow ShopRite employee following a long-standing dispute, Clark Township Mayor Sal Bonaccorso told WKXW-FM.
Prince attacked the other worker after chasing her around the supermarket with a knife, Bonaccorso told the station.
Other staffers and an off-duty state trooper intervened after the attack and immediately contacted cops, a ShopRite spokeswoman told The Post.
“Sadly, we can confirm that an associate was assaulted by another associate during an incident that occurred at the store on Sunday,” ShopRite spokeswoman Maureen Gillespie said in a statement. “We are still learning more about Sunday’s incident and cooperating fully with law enforcement on their investigation. We thank our fast-acting associates for intervening and helping secure the area.”
Prince has worked for ShopRite for more than eight years, Gillespie said. The injured employee was still hospitalized Tuesday, she said.