A 16-year-old Fairfax boy was stabbed last Friday inside Fair Oaks Mall, and Fairfax County police say the incident was gang-related. Arrested and charged with malicious wounding and gang participation was Kenneth John Dias III, 18, of Clinton, Md.
According to police, the victim walked into the mall, Oct. 13 around 6:30 p.m., with a woman, 21, and boy, 14, both from Fairfax. As he entered, he bumped into another man who, say police, allegedly "stabbed the teen in the midsection, knocking him to the ground."
The suspect fled outside and then ran back inside the mall through a department store. However, the victim and his two acquaintances followed the suspect and chased him inside the department store.
When police arrived, the victim told officers he'd been stabbed. They then found the suspect — reportedly identified as Dias — inside the mall and took him into custody. He was taken to the Adult Detention Center and held without bond. He has a Nov. 17 court date.
The victim was treated at Inova Fairfax Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. Police spokeswoman Shelley Broderick said he was stabbed when he and Dias bumped into each other, not afterward.
"They knew of each other because they were both in gangs," she said. But as far as police know, said Broderick, the stabbing "wasn't a preplanned thing." Police declined to release the name of Dias' gang because they "don't want to advertise it."