Police charge borough teen in stabbing

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NAUGATUCK — Police arrested a borough teen Tuesday after they said he stabbed and seriously injured a Waterbury man during a marijuana sale gone bad.

The 19-year-old man was stabbed in the abdomen and underwent surgery at Waterbury Hospital for internal bleeding, said Lt. Bryan Cammarata of the Naugatuck Police Department. He is expected to recover, Cammarata said.

The man came to the 16-year-old’s apartment in a multifamily home on Golden Hill Street to buy a small quantity of marijuana Tuesday morning, Cammarata said. After the man tried to run away without paying, the teen chased the man onto the lawn and a brief fistfight ensued, Cammarata said.

The teen, whom police would not identify because he is being charged as a juvenile, then stabbed the man with a three-inch blade that he had probably been carrying as a pocket knife, Cammarata said.

The man made it to the car where an acquaintance had been waiting during the sale, Cammarata said. The acquaintance, a borough man, drove to Waterbury Hospital, where the injured man was admitted around noon, Cammarata said.

Doctors determined the man was bleeding internally, although the external wound was not bleeding copiously, Cammarata said. Hospital staff called police when they found out how the man was hurt.

Police went to the house in the Union City section of the borough at about 1 p.m. to arrest the teen, Cammarata said. The teen was charged with second-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, and sale of marijuana. He was held overnight at the juvenile detention center in Bridgeport and appeared Wednesday at Waterbury Juvenile Court.