Inset: Marvina Butler-Hardy (Flagler County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The North Carolina parking lot where Marvina Butler-Hardy randomly stabbed a pregnant mother as she was walking with her toddler, according to police (WBTV).
In a shocking incident in North Carolina, a pregnant mother was unexpectedly attacked while walking with her 3-year-old child in a grocery store parking lot. The attack occurred in broad daylight when a woman, without any previous interaction, allegedly stabbed the mother, according to police reports.
Detective Ashley Phillips of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department explained in a Facebook video that the victim and the suspect, identified as Marvina Butler-Hardy, were strangers to each other before the incident.
The attack took place on the morning of March 18 at a Harris Teeter grocery store in Charlotte. Officers arrived on the scene shortly before 11:30 a.m. to find the pregnant woman suffering from non-life-threatening wounds. “The victim informed us that she had been stabbed,” Phillips stated.
Authorities allege that Butler-Hardy approached the victim as she was walking through the Harris Teeter parking lot with her young child. Butler-Hardy now faces serious charges, including assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or cause serious injury, as well as battery of an unborn child.
Sarah Click, an employee at the Cotswold Shopping Center where the incident occurred, expressed her disbelief over the event. “The sheer number of police cars and hearing my coworkers discuss it really shocked me,” she remarked.
“I never imagined something like this could happen here,” Click told WBTV, a local CBS affiliate. “The thought of someone suddenly attacking like that is reminiscent of a horror movie scene.”
Butler-Hardy allegedly fled in a Hyundai Elantra from the scene and drove to Florida, where she was pulled over for a broken windshield on Monday morning. State troopers spotted a large crack in the window and pulled her over outside of Jacksonville on a probable cause traffic stop, according to her arrest report.
Butler-Hardy allegedly handed the trooper who walked up to speak with her a North Carolina identification card instead of a driver’s license. A “be on the lookout” alert had been put out for a silver Hyundai with a description matching the car Butler-Hardy was driving and listing her as a suspect in the Charlotte stabbing.
“I asked Marvina why she had an ID card only and she advised that her driving license is suspended,” the trooper wrote in the arrest report. “Due to computer issues I was having as well as radio issues, I was unable to confirm if the driver was the [stabbing] suspect.”
Another trooper arrived at the scene and ran Butler-Hardy’s name in the system, found the warrant put out for the stabbing, and confirmed she was wanted out of Mecklenburg County.
“Marvina was secured immediately in handcuffs and placed at the front of my patrol vehicle,” the arresting trooper said. “After further observation of Marvina’s vehicle, I did observe the paper tag out of North Carolina laying flat above the rear seat and it did appear there was tape on the rear window but was peeled off.”
Butler-Hardy is currently awaiting extradition from Florida to North Carolina. Police say she will be brought back to Mecklenburg County to face charges. She does not have a court date set yet.
