BY ALEX PIAZZA
apiazza@record-eagle.com
TRAVERSE CITY — A Northport woman repeatedly stabbed a relative with a broken beer bottle because he refused to drive her home from the Traverse City Fourth of July fireworks display, police said.
A Mount Pleasant man, 19, told Traverse City Police that his cousin broke a beer bottle early Monday and stabbed him three times because he would not give her a ride to her Leelanau County home. They watched the fireworks display together Sunday night at Sunset Park off Front Street along the Grand Traverse Bay.
The attack occurred around 2 a.m. Monday, hours after the fireworks display concluded.
"After the fireworks were over, they argued over who was going to give the suspect a ride home," said city police Capt. Brian Heffner. "They went as a family. The victim wanted to go back to Mount Pleasant. When he told her that he wouldn't (drive her home), she broke the beer bottle and stabbed him."
The victim's girlfriend initially stopped at a McDonald's restaurant along Front Street to ask for directions to the nearest hospital. She then drove him to Munson Medical Center, where Heffner said the victim was treated for two lacerations on his right forearm and a laceration on his right knee. Police interviewed the victim on Tuesday, and also planned to speak with the suspect, whom they would not identify.
Heffner expects the department will send its report over to the county prosecutor's office today with a list of requested criminal charges.
Anyone with more information on the stabbing is asked to call the Silent Observer Tip Line at 947-8477.
