Woman stabs two, threatens child outside southeast Houston apartments

A southeast Houston apartment complex on the 8600 block of Broadway turned into a crime scene Wednesday night after police say a woman in her 40s chased a man with a knife, threatened a mother and her 7-year-old child, and stabbed two people in the parking lot.

Houston police said the violence began around 9 p.m. near a convenience store at Broadway Street and Rockhill Street, just north of Hobby Airport in the Golfcrest area. Investigators said the woman started a disturbance there, pulled out a knife and chased a man who managed to get away unharmed before she moved toward the apartment complex.

Inside the complex, police said, people were already running from her. A mother and her 7-year-old child were threatened but made it back inside their apartment without injury. Moments later, investigators said the woman encountered a group of four people outside the complex. Two escaped, but the others were stabbed in what police described as a fast-moving episode that spread across the property in minutes.

The victims were a 42-year-old woman and her 69-year-old husband. Police said the woman was stabbed three times in the stomach. Her husband was stabbed twice in the stomach and once in the back. Both were taken to the hospital and are expected to survive.

Houston police took the suspect into custody at the scene without incident. Lt. R. Willkens said officers believe she may have been in some kind of mental crisis and said she told police she was on seizure medication or something like that. Investigators are working with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office on possible charges.

Police also said they do not yet know whether the woman was homeless or lived nearby. The case left residents on the Broadway block facing a violent reminder of how quickly an ordinary apartment parking lot can turn dangerous when a suspect is armed and moving on foot.