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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 attacked without warning while walking through a grocery store parking lot with her 3-year-old child. The assailant, a woman with no prior connection to the victim, reportedly stabbed the mother in broad daylight, according to police reports.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Detective Ashley Phillips clarified in a Facebook video that the victim and her attacker were strangers. The alleged assailant, identified as Marvina Butler-Hardy, launched the unprovoked attack.
The incident occurred on the morning of March 18 at a Harris Teeter grocery store in Charlotte. Authorities responded to the scene just before 11:30 a.m., discovering the pregnant victim with injuries that were not life-threatening. Detective Phillips noted, “When they arrived, the victim stated that she had been stabbed.”
According to police, the victim was walking with her young child when Butler-Hardy, now facing charges including assault with a deadly weapon and battery of an unborn child, suddenly attacked her. The charges suggest intent to kill or inflict serious harm.
Sarah Click, an employee in the nearby Cotswold Shopping Center, expressed her shock at the incident, saying, “The amount of cop cars and then hearing my coworkers talk about it, that really took me aback.”
“I had no idea something like that would happen up here at all,” Click told local CBS affiliate WBTV. “The immediate thing that I thought of was someone just coming at you like this — like a horror film.”
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.