COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. (KMTR) – One man is dead and another man is in custody following a stabbing at a Cottage Grove mobile home park late Friday night.
The stabbing happened at the Frontier Mobile Court on Highway 99 North in Cottage Grove.
The Cottage Grove Police Department announced Saturday that 46-year-old Willie Lee Beaty is charged with Assault 1 and Murder in the crime. Police say he stabbed and killed 30-year-old Samuel Scooter Hunt.
Around 9:24 PM Friday night Cottage Grove Police responded to a 911 call reporting a stabbing at the mobile home park near space #37. Police say the caller indicated that Beaty had stabbed a man.
While responding to the incident, police located Beaty “a short distance away” from the scene. Police then detained Beaty and took him in to custody.
When police arrived at the scene of the crime, they found Hunt with a stab wound in his chest. Police say Hunt was taken to Cottage Grove Community Hospital where he died.
NewsSource 16 spoke to several neighbors living near the incident. Many said they didn't hear anything until police cars showed up.
"I was kind of shocked because you know I didn't expect it was going to be right behind my house," said Ryan Comisky, a neighbor living near the site of the stabbing.
Several neighbors also told NewsSource 16 that the two people involved didn't live in the mobile home park, but were frequent vistors. Neighbors say the area where the stabbing happened is often very noisy.
"Every once in a while I hear screaming and yelling and somebody's screaming and yelling, like it's normal. And sometimes late at night - like 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning - I hear that too. That's pretty much all I hear and so every once in a while it happens," said Comisky.
The Lane County District Attorney’s Office and the Cottage Grove Police Department are continuing to investigate the incident. So far, it's unclear what lead to the stabbing or what the relationship was between the suspect and the victim.
