By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — A warm afternoon of shopping at MarketFair was interrupted Thursday when a domestic dispute turned deadly in a multiple stabbing incident that left a 32-year old man dead and 20-year-old woman injured.
Police said the couple, who had a prior dating relationship and were nursing students and returning from a class, arrived together at the shopping center about 4:15 p.m. in a black Volvo station wagon to pick up the woman’s car that had been left in the parking lot outside the Barnes & Noble bookstore.
As the Volvo entered the parking lot, Shane Kinney of Princeton stabbed the woman, Heather Markel of Plainsboro, inside the car with a butterfly knife, police said, as the car drifted into a grass island nearby. They both then got out of the car and Mr. Kinney again stabbed her with the knife in the scalp, arm and chest, but she was able to run into the bookstore, seeking help.
Mr. Kinney then slashed his throat with the same knife, police said. He was later found in a pool of blood in the parking lot.
Inside the store, the woman was found to be bleeding profusely and received emergency medical treatment near the central café of the busy bookstore.
No one else was injured, according to West Windsor Lt. Carl Walsh, who was at the scene.
Emergency responders took both Ms. Markel and Mr. Kinney by ambulance to Capital Health System’s Helene Fuld campus.
Mr. Kinney was pronounced dead at the hospital about an hour later, police said.
Ms. Markel was listed in stable condition after being treated in the hospital’s surgical trauma unit.
The store was evacuated following the incident, although Barnes & Noble employees were kept in the store, before departing without comment at around 5:30 p.m.
Much of two parking lots located next to the Barnes & Noble store were closed off with yellow police tape, as West Windsor detectives and other law enforcement officials took photos of the crime scene and collected evidence.
The investigation is being conducted by the West Windsor Police Department and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office. Witnesses are asked to contact Detective Sgt. Brian Melnick at 609-799-1222.
