TAUNTON, Mass. —A wild stabbing rampage in Taunton Tuesday night has left at least three people dead, including the suspect, and several others injured.
The incident started after a man, who has been identified as Arthur Darosa, 28, of Taunton, was involved in a crash on Myricks Street. Witnesses said that moments after the crash the man began to run around the neighborhood erratically, trying to break into nearby homes.
"It was chaos," neighbor Doug Kinsman said.
Darosa was able to force his way into a home, and sources told NewsCenter 5 that he then used a kitchen knife to stab a mother and daughter inside.
Neighbors said they watched in horror as the man ran back out of the home, and fled the scene in a black car he stole.
"He was definitely not in the right state of mind," Kinsman said.
Emergency crews raced to the scene, and neighbors said they saw paramedics performing CPR on the older woman as she was rushed into a waiting ambulance.
Both women were taken to a hospital where one, who was identified as an 80-year-old woman, died.
The other women, her daughter, remains in the hospital.
A short time later the suspect drove the car into the front of the Macy's department store located at the Silver City Galleria and attacked several other people.
Customers said they heard a commotion and screaming before they began to run.
Witness Reshma Noorani was in a fitting room inside Macy's when chaos erupted.
"I came out and I heard girls running and people screaming, 'There's a guy,'" she said. "We're used to guys entering the store, so we thought he must have had a gun. I ran with them. I was scared."
The unidentified suspect then ran from the Macy's to a Bertucci's restaurant a few doors down.
"All of a sudden he walked into Bertucci's and I saw him just start stabbing people," witness Emaly Higgings said. "And there was someone with a chair trying to throw it at (the suspect). There was an off-duty police officer there, and he actually shot him and kept him down."
Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn III said Darosa armed himself with a knife and stabbed two people inside the restaurant. Darosa also assaulted three others at the mall, Quinn said.
One of those victims who was stabbed, a 56-year-old man, died.
Higgings said the suspect appeared to be angry about something.
"He just went off," she said. "He was mad about something. We don't know what. He just started stabbing everybody. We just ran and ducked for our own safety."
Quinn said the off-duty officer shot Darosa once. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
"It appears that but for the actions of the deputy sheriff, there may very well have been other victims," Quinn said.
State police said all of the crime scenes have been secured, and Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio said there was no ongoing threat to the public.
