STANTON, Neb. (AP) - Authorities in northeastern Nebraska are having to navigate how to handle a stabbing suspect who is too young under state law to be held behind bars.
The case involves a 12-year-old girl accused of stabbing another girl repeatedly at a park in Stanton, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. Stanton County Sheriff’s deputies were called Friday night to West City Park for a report of a stabbing and found a girl with five stab wounds to her back and arm. The girl was flown to a Sioux City, Iowa, hospital for treatment.
Officers later found and arrested the 12-year-old girl on suspicion of first-degree assault and a weapons count in the attack.
Nebraska law does not allow juvenile detention centers to detain anybody who is 12 or younger. Authorities said the girl is being held in a Lincoln hospital, where she’s is to receive a mental health evaluation.
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