Utah teen stabs best friend with sword during sleepover

A 17-year-old boy in Utah is in critical condition after his best friend stabbed him with a sword as he slept during a sleepover early Saturday morning.

“The friend for an unknown reason took a sword off of the wall in our victim’s room and stabbed him in the abdomen,” Lt. Lex Bell of the Unified Police Department told KSL.

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Police said the victim’s father confronted the 17-year-old friend after hearing the commotion, resulting in a frantic 911 call from the victim’s mother.

“When the father gets in the room, the suspect is trying to get another weapon to stab the victim again, it sounds like,” Bell said. “So the father grabbed him and there was a physical altercation.”

A police officer came to the assistance of the father, but both men struggled to subdue the boy.

“Our officer tried to use a Taser on our 17-year-old suspect,” said Bell. “The Taser was ineffective.”

It wasn’t until EMS and firefighters arrived on the scene that they were able to control the friend.

“They came to the aid of our officer and the father and were able to restrain that suspect.”

The victim was airlifted to hospital where surgeons were able to stabilize the boy’s condition.

The suspect was also transported to hospital and underwent an evaluation. The boy has been booked into a detention centre and will be charged with either investigation aggravated assault or attempted homicide.

Police are investigating to determine whether drugs or alcohol were a factor.

“At this point I don’t know the answer, but I do know that one of the main things they’re looking at is (if) this was caused by drugs,” said Bell. “He was obviously having some sort of psychotic episode.”

“I think with the amount of men it took to take him down, that to me says it couldn’t be something natural inside that young man,” neighbour Pam Izatt said.

The victim is expected to recover.