Officials are investigating after a police officer was stabbed in the leg on Tuesday morning.
According to Phoenix fire officials, the incident happened outside of a Circle K near 17th Avenue and Van Buren Street around 10 a.m.
ABC15 learned two officers were speaking with a neighbor as they were investigating reports of a "suspicious person."
The neighbor told ABC15 she kept seeing a man driving around the neighborhood and was concerned because there is a school and children in the area. As police were speaking with the woman, she alerted them about the man's presence once again.
The woman told ABC15 the man was observed in the neighborhood driving around in his vehicle and was also seen out walking around over the span of at least two days. He was confronted by Shantel Brown, who told ABC15 the man was "creeping."
"My child came home around 3:45 and said ‘that van across the street scared me.' He scared him cause he kept popping in and out of his van," Brown recounted. "I asked him 'Are you a pedophile?' You gotta get off our neighborhood."
This prompted police to investigate the man who at the time was driving a vehicle that turned out to be a stolen car.
Police stopped the man, placed him in handcuffs and put him in the back of a patrol car. Once inside, the man lunged out of the vehicle as a rear door was left open, and stabbed an officer with a knife.
Police have identified the suspect as 34-year-old Antonio Francois Spina II. Officers originally described the suspect as a man around 60 years old and police believe he was trying to change his appearance to escape warrants.
The officer who was stabbed is a 22-year veteran of the department. A second officer received abrasions to the head. That officer is an 11-year veteran of the department.
Both officers were taken to a hospital in stable condition and were released Tuesday night.
Another neighbor told ABC15 the man had knocked on several doors in the neighborhood at an apartment complex and had also parked outside of several homes and would watch them for several minutes. That neighbor said the man was spotted in the neighborhood for at least three days.
Spina has been booked into Maricopa County Jail on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault on a police officer, prohibited possessor and unlawful use of means of transportation. He also had a felony sex offender warrant out of Virginia.
This story is developing. Stay with ABC15 for updates.
