"Home Depot employee in critical condition after Quincy stabbing" by Meghan E. Irons | Globe Staff, November 07, 2013
QUINCY — As patrons shopped at a Home Depot store Thursday morning, two feuding employees engaged in a savage fight that left a man hospitalized with stab wounds and a store aisle covered in blood, authorities said.
Jamal Boyd, 36, of Mattapan, is accused of stabbing co-worker Corey Frederick, 37, of Cambridge in the leg in Aisle 13, Quincy police said.
Frederick was in critical condition at Boston Medical Center.
Police received a desperate call shortly before 8 a.m. from an employee in the Willard Street store, begging them to hurry.
“Someone is bleeding to death at my store right now at Home Depot,’’ a man is heard saying to a 911 dispatcher, according to a recording released by police.
“I need police and ambulance now!” the caller said.
When police arrived, they found Frederick bleeding profusely in the door section. Boyd had fled.
“The wounds were extensive,’’ said Police Chief Paul Keenan. “They were leg wounds, like he had been stabbed in the femoral artery area. There was an extensive amount of blood.”
Keenan said Boyd had used a knife he had in his possession to attack Frederick. Police recovered the knife in the store, Keenan said.
Police said that while Frederick and Boyd are Home Depot employees, the two men are not based at the Quincy store. They are part of a team that goes from store to store stocking shelves.
Both had been feuding for some time, and their argument escalated after they started their 6 a.m. shift Thursday, police said.
“They had words prior to the altercation,’’ said Keenan.
At least two employees rushed to pry the men apart, the chief said. After the fight, Boyd ran out a side door and into a wooded area behind the store.
Frederick was taken to Boston Medical Center, where he had surgery, police said.
Meanwhile, Boyd’s escape was thwarted after he got lost in the woods. A police officer had obtained his number and called his cellphone. When Boyd answered, the officer persuaded him to return to the store and surrender.
Boyd was arrested and will be arraigned Friday morning in Quincy District Court on charges of assault with intent to murder and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon.
“So far he’s cooperating,’’ Keenan said.
The stabbing shut the store for at least three hours.
“It’s sad that they would do that in the workplace,’’ said Michelle Dwyer, a Quincy resident who arrived at the store midmorning to shop.
Yeah, take it outside.
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Jeffrey H. Zeizel, who identified himself as a grief responder, said he was asked to work with employees who may have been traumatized by the event.
He would not talk about the Home Depot case specifically, but said his job is to provide “psychological first aid” in times of grief.
“I’m interfacing with people when they are experiencing perhaps the worst day of their lives,’’ said Zeizel, who is a licensed social worker....
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