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Officers responding to a report of a fight on the 1000 block of E. Market Street in Bethlehem found the boy with multiple stab wounds just after 3:45 p.m. Saturday, police said.
Officers applied a tourniquet to control the victim’s bleeding before he was taken to St. Luke’s University Hospital - Fountain Hill for further treatment.
The offender, who police say jumped into a passing car just after the incident, was found a short time later near the 4100 block of Washington St. in Bethlehem Township and detained by local officers. He was identified as Tyler Felipe Vargas, 18.
A follow-up investigation found that Vargas confronted the victim with a knife on the 1000 block of E. Market Street before chasing him on foot, police said.
Vargas then stabbed the boy several times before he was disarmed in a physical struggle. He then tried to throw the victim in front of a passing car, police said.
Vargas was arrested and charged with criminal attempt at criminal homicide, aggravated assault (serious bodily injury), aggravated assault (deadly weapon), simple assault (bodily injury), simple assault (physical menace), recklessly endangering another person and possessing instruments of crime.
Vargas was being held at Northampton County Prison on $500,000 bail pending a preliminary hearing.
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