Downtown Lawrence knife attack leaves man injured, suspect charged

A downtown Lawrence knife attack left one man with a finger injury and sent police and fire-medical crews to the 700 block of Vermont Street, a busy corridor that sits at the center of the city’s evening foot traffic and redevelopment planning.

Police arrested Dau Cuiebet Jok, 39, shortly before 9 p.m. after officers were dispatched to a weapons-related disturbance in the area. According to police, a witness said Jok and the injured man had already been in a physical altercation when officers arrived. Lawrence police spokeswoman Laura McCabe said Jok pulled out a knife, swung it around and threatened several people.

Police said the victim’s hand was injured while trying to block the attack. Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical treated him at the scene.

Jok was charged Wednesday with aggravated battery and felony criminal threat. Court records show he had been released earlier in May on a $1,500 own-recognizance bond in a separate March case. That earlier case involved three counts of felony criminal threat and two counts of misdemeanor battery tied to a January incident.

For people who live, work and stay downtown after dark, the arrest underscores how quickly a confrontation on Vermont Street can turn into an emergency with weapons involved. The 700 block has been the site of other recent disturbance cases, including a 2025 incident in which police said a man threatened people with a broken baseball bat in the same block.

The location matters because Vermont Street is not just another downtown block. City downtown planning materials describe the Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont street corridors as part of the historic heart of Lawrence, and the area remains central to major redevelopment and transit planning. The city has also identified nearby properties on Vermont Street and New Hampshire Street for possible redevelopment as part of the downtown station site process.

That overlap of nightlife, pedestrian traffic, redevelopment and transit activity makes public safety a daily issue for downtown businesses, workers and late-night visitors. In a few blocks around Massachusetts Street and Vermont Street, ordinary evening routines can shift fast when a disturbance involves a knife, and the response can bring police, medics and renewed concern about whether repeated flashpoints are becoming a pattern.