Police arrested a woman suspected of stabbing two people in back-to-back attacks in Downtown Long Beach Tuesday night, according to authorities.
The stabbings, which were about a block apart from each other, left two men hospitalized in stable condition, Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman Karen Owens said.
The first attack happened around 8:40 p.m. in a Vons grocery store on Atlantic Avenue near First Street, prompting multiple people to call police, according to authorities. Three minutes later, there was another stabbing at a business around the corner on Broadway just east of Atlantic, Owens said.
Police said the attacker fled on foot after the stabbings, but officers were able to quickly find her about a block away.
“The knife believed to be used in the crime was also recovered,” Owens said.
Police said they don’t know of any motive for the stabbings and there doesn’t appear to be any prior connection between the attacker and the victims. Detectives are still investigating, according to Owens.
Police identified the woman as Lilly Stepanian, a 54-year-old Tujunga resident. She’s being held in lieu of $2 million bail in the Long Beach jail on suspicion of two counts of attempted murder, according to the LBPD.
This article has been updated. Police originally said the suspected attacker was a man but later identified her as Lilly Stepanian.