Police arrest suspect after Safeway stabbing injures Eugene worker

A Safeway employee was hospitalized after a stabbing inside the East 18th Avenue store, and Eugene police caught a suspect nearby within a short time, limiting the danger to shoppers and workers in the busy corridor.

Police said the attack happened at 3:52 p.m. on April 23, 2026, at Safeway, 145 E. 18th Avenue. The victim was a man in his 40s who worked at the store and told officers he did not know the man who attacked him. Eugene Springfield Fire treated the worker at the scene and transported him to a local hospital. Police said his injuries were serious enough to require emergency care, but they were not considered life-threatening.

The response turned quickly on information from people who called 911. Callers gave officers a description of the suspect and the direction he fled, allowing several officers to search the area immediately after the stabbing. Police later found the suspect near East 17th Avenue and Mill Street, just a short distance from the store, and took him into custody shortly afterward.

Investigators identified the suspect as 47-year-old Jason Troy Griner. He was arrested and booked into Lane County Jail on a charge of assault in the first degree. The Eugene Police Department said assault cases are handled by its Special Investigations Unit, which works alongside the Lane County Interagency Deadly Force Investigative Team in major violent-crime investigations.

The stabbing unfolded in a part of Eugene where grocery stores, neighborhood streets and steady vehicle traffic sit close together, making the Safeway a familiar stop for nearby residents and workers. The incident also came just after the city marked the 15th anniversary of Eugene Police Officer Chris Kilcullen’s line-of-duty death, a reminder of how quickly violent calls can resonate across the community.

Police did not immediately describe a motive, and the victim said he did not know Griner. For shoppers and employees at the east Eugene store, the most immediate takeaway was that the suspect was taken into custody quickly and the injured worker survived a violent shift that ended in a hospital bed instead of something worse.