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Macy's Workers Tried To Thwart Thief Before Deadly Stabbing: PPD (Updated)

The knife-wielding attacker that left one Macy's employee dead and sent another to the hospital Monday morning was trying to rob the store, according to Philadelphia police. 

Scenes from the stabbing at the Center City Macy's, 1300 Market Street, on Dec. 4. 

Scenes from the stabbing at the Center City Macy's, 1300 Market Street, on Dec. 4. 

Photo Credit: Citizen.App

Two security guards were stabbed at the 1300 Market Street store around 11 a.m. on Dec. 4, Daily Voice reported previously. 

At a press conference Monday afternoon, interim PPD Commissioner John Stanford said the suspect tried stealing hats but was thwarted by the guards. He returned about 15 minutes later and attacked them, investigators believe. 

One victim, 30, was stabbed in the neck and later pronounced dead at Jefferson Hospital, according to authorities. A 23-year-old man who was stabbed in the face and left arm was also taken to Jefferson and placed in stable condition, police said. 

The would-be thief fled via SEPTA and was arrested by transit police at the Somerset Station in Kensington, said the Commissioner. 6abc reports that he is 30-year-old Tyrone Tunnell. -

"This started as a retail theft, upgraded obviously to a robbery, and then led ultimately to a homicide," Stanford said. 

The Market Street Macy's has one of the highest rates of retail theft in Center City with more than 250 reported incidents so far this year, the Commissioner noted. 

The name of the victim has not been released. 

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