Orleans

Vt. Victim Stabbed in Post Office Parking Lot, Police Say

The alleged assailant turned himself into police several hours later

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NBC10

An alleged attacker accused of stabbing a man he had followed off the highway and confronted was arrested in Newport, Vermont, on Saturday, authorities said.

The 24-year-old man, Dakota Deslandes of Orleans, soon after turned himself in and was charged with alleged aggravated assault with a weapon, according to a statement from the Newport Police Department.

Police received a 911 call at 12:55 p.m. Saturday detailing a fight in the parking lot of a U.S. Post Office on Coventry Street. Officers found the victim with a large laceration on his chin and provided medical assistance before later taking him to a local hospital.

The victim was driving down Route 5, he told officers, when another driver started to follow him, driving aggressively. They both pulled off the highway to the post office parking lot, where the stabbing took place.

Several hours after the incident, at 4:30 p.m., Deslandes called police to see if they were looking for him. He came to the police station in Newport a half hour later, was interviewed and later arrested.

Police also say they reviewed cell phone video of the events, taken and provided by Deslandes. He was ordered released by a judge and will appear in court on Wednesday.

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