INDIANAPOLIS — A Fishers family out for a walk became witnesses as a woman was stabbed on the Cultural Trail downtown.
“It was sunny. It was hot,” Teresa Jackson said of last Thursday afternoon, when she said she and her husband headed downtown with their three young kids for a walk on the Canal and Cultural Trail.
The family was on the trail, almost to Illinois Street, when they heard a woman screaming.
“We look up and we see a woman is being attacked” Teresa said.
The Jacksons say they had seen the woman jogging toward them seconds earlier. Now she was struggling with a man up ahead.
“It was like you knew something was not right. We looked up, obviously we knew, she dropped to her knees immediately,” Teresa remembered.
The Jacksons say another jogger ran to help the injured woman as the person who attacked her took off running.
“You could see that there was blood. We didn’t know what had happened at that point,” said Teresa.
“I’ve never seen so much blood in my life. I was just hoping that she was going to be OK,” Jeff Jackson added.
Jackson said he chased the suspect for at least two blocks, as the man headed toward Capitol Avenue. The entire time, Jeff said he was on his cell phone with 911, trying to explain what he just witnessed. Jeff said when he got near Capitol, other folks joined in the chase, eventually tackling the suspect.
Police arrested Victor Alvin Johnson. Court documents show Johnson was out on bond after an unrelated arrest in February. That case is still pending.
According to court documents, Johnson’s bond has been revoked.
Police say the jogger is in stable condition and confirm they’ve stepped up bike patrols in the area after this and other incidents along the trail.
“I never in my life thought we’d see something like that. That poor lady appeared to just be going on a routine jog,” said Teresa Jackson.
Despite that, the Jacksons say they don’t feel unsafe coming back to the trail or downtown.
“It’s a beautiful area,” said Teresa.
They just hope the woman recovers.
“Hopefully, physically, mentally, she’ll be able to pull through,” she said.