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Stabbing suspect sought

PARKERSBURG – Police continue to search for a suspect accused of stabbing another man during an argument that escalated into a fistfight Thursday afternoon.

Joseph Tyler Marcum, 24, last known address in Charleston, was last seen fleeing toward St. Marys Avenue around 1 p.m. Thursday. Witnesses reported seeing him arguing, then fighting, with another man on 13th 1/2 Street.

The victim of the stabbing is Joseph Sams, 21, of Parkersburg, said Lt. Greg Nangle with the Parkersburg Police Department on Thursday evening.

“They broke up real quick and Joey, he was holding his stomach,” said Gary Harbison, a resident of Carlton Apartments on Spring Street.

Harbison was sitting outside when he saw the two men walking up 13th 1/2 and arguing. After they broke off the fight, Sams walked across the road and Harbison said he saw blood leaking from between his fingers.

Harbison led Sams back across the street to a folding chair behind the apartments.

“I ripped my shirt off and put pressure on (the wound),” he said.

Up the street, Coolville resident Shon Gates was visiting Dave Souder when they heard the commotion. Three or four people were chasing the suspect up the street, Souder said.

Gates went over to Sams and put a towel around his midsection.

“Some guy was holding on … right below his ribs, trying to keep pressure on it,” she said.

Sams was taken to Camden Clark Medical Center. He was in critical condition on Thursday evening, said Tim Brunicardi, spokesman for CCMC.

Based on witness and victim statements, police Detective D.D. Sturm requested a warrant for Marcum on a felony charge of malicious wounding.

A release from the police department says Marcum was wearing a red hat, a red shirt, blue jean shorts and flip-flops when he was last seen running east toward St. Marys Avenue.

Parkersburg High School and McKinley Elementary School were placed on lockdown after the incident but that was lifted less than an hour later. Nangle said there was no immediate danger to the schools since the incident did not occur particularly close to them and there was no indication the suspect was headed to either.

A weapon had not been recovered at the scene, Nangle said.

Fights are not uncommon in the neighborhood, Nangle said, but Thursday’s violence was at another level.

“We have a lot of fights in this part of town, but stabbings are few and far between,” he said.

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