A man was the victim of a non-life-threatening stab wound early Saturday morning at Stillwaters Bar after a verbal altercation occurring around bar time in the downtown bar’s doorway.
The victim was leaving the popular State Street bar around 2:15 a.m. Saturday when an unknown suspect in the crowd attacked him, a Madison Police Department release stated. The type of weapon used is unknown.
“A college-aged white male was stabbed in the front of the stomach,” City Council President Mike Verveer who was present at the time of the incident, said. “There was a verbal altercation first with the guy that was stabbed and friends of his … it all happened very quickly.”
The suspect fled on foot after the attack and is still at large.
“The one male was stabbed by another male,” Verveer said. “The suspect and others fled east down West Johnson Street before the cops got there. The police were searching the area for quite some time, but they were unsuccessful in finding a suspect.”
The investigation is ongoing, according to the release; however, the officer on duty said no new information was currently available.
Due to the large crowd of people present at bar time, police have collected a decent amount of information on the suspect according to Verveer, noting that police immediately began interviewing any and all witnesses they could locate.
This is the second time Stillwaters Bar has been the scene of a violent incident within the past year.
Last year approximately 10 gunshots were fired outside the premise into the bar March 10 after a rap contest, hitting one person in the arm and leg. The victim was treated for minor injuries.
“Obviously this is a very disturbing incident, but I want to stress a very unusual incident. Something as serious as a stabbing is extremely rare anywhere in Madison but is particularly rare downtown,” Verveer said. “It’s just crazy that now Stillwaters has had two weapon incidents … first the shooting last year and then this. Stillwaters is not some sort of notorious scary crime-ridden bar. They are just having awful bad luck in the last two years with high-profile incidents.”
