5th Avenue Mall employee stabbed while trying to stop shoplifter

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A mall employee was stabbed on Saturday evening while trying to prevent a thief from leaving the 5th Avenue Mall.

According to the Anchorage Police Department, police were informed just before 6 p.m. of the stabbing, in which a man headed for the exit of the Sunglass Hut store in the mall without providing payment for merchandise.

“An adult male employee intercepted the shoplifter, and the two got into a physical altercation wherein the suspect stabbed the employee in the upper body,” police wrote in an email on Monday morning. “Afterwards the suspect immediately ran out of the store.”

Police say Anchorage Fire Department medics responded to the scene to treat the victim, who was later treated at the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

Police say no arrests have been made and that the investigation is ongoing. No suspect description has been released.

If you have any information about this incident and want to report it to the police, you can call 907-786-8900.

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