UPDATE: Police re-arrested an Englewood resident after learning that an Edgewater woman was permanently blinded in one eye when she was stabbed with a comb knife on a city street.
Kristen Bell, 36, remained held in the Bergen County Jail on Monday, Sept. 26, after authorities upgraded charges against her to second-degree aggravated assault, Englewood Police Lt. Fred Pulice said.
The 32-year-old victim, whose identity is being protected by Daily Voice, lives in Edgewater but sometimes stays with her sister in Englewood, the lieutenant said.
The woman told Daily Voice that she was attacked by Bell and her 14-year-old son outside the 1 William Street apartment complex in broad daylight last Friday.
The woman said she doesn't know either of them nor what they have against her and claimed that they'd been harassing her for a month and a half.
Police said Bell allegedly felt disrespected because the victim "wasn't friendly enough" to her. She used a hair comb to stab the victim, he said.
The victim's mother, Shatekwa Cunningham, said she and her daughter believe it was an ice pick.
The women actually had tangled earlier that day, Cunningham said. Her daughter had gotten the best of that clash and went on with her day, she added.
Her daughter apparently found Bell waiting for her when she returned, Cunningham said. Bell had her son and young daughter with her, she said.
“ ‘What’s up now?’ she said to my daughter she stabbed her three times in the eye, hand and head,” Cunningham.
Bell initially fled after the assault but then surrendered to authorities the lieutenant said. A judge in Hackensack released her the following day, with conditions.
The victim refused treatment at the scene.
"I [brought] myself to the hospital because I was still in a state of shock," she told Daily Voice said. "But these injuries were definitely not minor."
Police agreed.
They seized Bell on Sunday and sent her back to the jail.
In addition to upgrading the original aggravated assault count, detectives charged Bell with endangering her two children, who Pulice said were with her at the time of the stabbing.
The victim's mom, meanwhile, is seeking help with the expenses her daughter faces.
“As per the eye surgeons, she will need extensive aftercare which includes; several eye surgeries, therapy, nurses, aides, and counseling to deal with the fact that she will not be who we all know [her] to be,” Cunningham wrote on a GoFundMe campaign.
