LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Two people are behind bars and one person is dead after a stabbing in Lafayette Saturday night.
Lafayette Police responded to call at 9:08 p.m. about a stabbing at a home located on N. 7th St near the corner of Cincinnati St. Officers learned Donald Alkire, 29, was stabbed in the neck. Emergency personnel brought him the Franciscan Health ER, where he died from his injuries.
Through investigation, police arrested Floyd Smith, 32 (left) and Joseph Wilkerson, 25 (right) for murder.
Sherri Tankersley tells us the home operated as a weekly rental living space. She's the building owner of the home where the stabbing happened. She said Alkire lived on the third floor and she and her family live on the bottom floor.
Tankersley didn't recognize the two suspects but she's known Alkire since he was little. Before the stabbing, she heard a loud commotion upstairs and thought it was a break-in. She's now left remembering the moment before he was taken to the hospital.
"I had my husband go up and see what was going on and he had found out that he had been hurt and he was still coherent at that time and we went to tend to him and he squeezed my hand and then they carried him out," said Tankersley.
She said it's frightening to know her family friend was stabbed in the same home they share.
"It's scary, you know, you don't expect stuff like that to happen," said Tankersley. "We have a secured lock on the door, somebody left it open, they got in, they went up they did their thing and now he's gone."
Police are investigating what led up to the stabbing taking place.
