Anne Holliday Reports on Attempted Homicide in Bradford as Details Emerge
2 min readBy ANNE HOLLIDAY
WESB/WBRR News Director
BRADFORD – A Bradford man is jailed without bail for allegedly stabbing another man multiple times this morning on Tibbitts Avenue.
25-year-old Randon Black is charged with attempted criminal homicide, aggravated assault and related offenses after allegedly stabbing David Kelsey and cutting his throat and neck with a black-handled K-Bar knife.
The incident happened at about 2:30 a.m. Assistant Bradford City Police Chief Mike Ward said when he arrived at the scene he saw that Kelsey had “a large laceration to the side of his neck from which blood was squirting profusely,” according to the affidavit of probable cause filed in District Judge Dominic Cercone’s office.
Ward said Kelsey told him he thought he was going to die and wanted Ward to know who stabbed him before he died. Kelsey told Ward Black stabbed him but wasn’t sure why.
Ward said Kesley kept repeating that he was going to die but Ward “tried to assure him that he would be OK,” the affidavit says. Kelsey began to loose consciousness as he was being taken by ambulance to Bradford Regional Medical Center, where a doctor said he was in critical condition and it was unclear whether he would survive. He was later taken to an out-of-town hospital, where he is in critical, but stable, condition.
Police had planned on using a bloodhound to find Black, but Ward said he knew from prior dealings with him that he lived with his grandmother on Willard Avenue. Ward and Officer Heil Bartlett went to the grandmother’s house, where they found the suspect. Ward pulled out his Taser and ordered Black to surrender.
At the city police station he was read his Miranda rights and signed a Miranda Rights Waiver form. Black then told Ward and State Trooper Douglas Kramer that “he had stabbed Kelsey with a black-handled K-Bar folding knife with a silver blade and that Kelsey’s blood got on his face and clothes, which he removed at his grandmother’s.”
During the 40-minute arraignment, except for a couple of times when his answers were barely audible, Black simply shook or nodded his head when Cercone asked questions.
Cercone said because of the seriousness of the charges he was not going to set bail. A preliminary hearing has been tentatively scheduled for September 14, but Cercone explained to Black that it will probably be moved to a later date, and Learn agreed.
