VIRGINIA BEACH — Police say a man stabbed a woman and set an apartment on fire early Friday.
Information from the Virginia Beach Police Department indicated that 47-year-old Eric Keith Bowen, of the 3700 block of 26th Street, is facing charges of aggravated malicious wounding and burning or destroying a dwelling.
At around 1:17 a.m. Friday, officers were sent to the 300 block of 26th Street after a neighbor reported hearing a woman screaming for help, saying she had been stabbed.
There, police found “an adult female suffering from a stabbing,” according to a police news release.
She was taken to a hospital with “critical injuries.” An update on her condition was not immediately available.
As the officers were tending to the woman at the scene, the suspect, later identified as Bowen, barricaded himself inside. Officers then noticed that the apartment was on fire and immediately called for firefighters; surrounding apartments were evacuated.
Virginia Beach Fire crews quickly extinguished the blaze.
At some point, Bowen jumped from a second-story window. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment of injuries he suffered from the jump, police said.
Authorities said Bowen and the woman know each other.
