A triple stabbing that left one dead in Halethorpe Sunday pushed Baltimore County?s murder count to 34 ? the same number of homicides in all of 2006.
Baltimore County police arrested James Brand, 28, of the 2000 block of Hollins Ferry Road in Baltimore. He?s charged with the first-degree assaults of John McCubbin, 35, and Joseph Bena, 26.
James Mehan, 25, was killed during the stabbing ? and Baltimore County police said they are “98 percent there” to charging Brand with Mehan?s murder, too.
Mehan and his friends were playing pool inside LeComptes Bar at 4015 Annapolis Road at about 12:54 a.m. when several men entered the bar, police said.
Within minutes, a fight broke out between the two groups and Brand stabbed McCubbin and Bena, according to police. Mehan was stabbed multiple times.
“We don?t know what the argument was about,” said Baltimore County police Cpl. Mike Hill.
All of the victims were transported to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where Mehan died from his injuries.
The killing brings Baltimore County?s homicide count to 34, two ahead of Dec. 10 last year.
Twenty-three of those homicides have been solved.
Hill said residents shouldn?t worry about the increase in homicides.
“A lot of these murders this year are domestic-related,” he said. “There?s not a lot you can do about that from an enforcement standpoint.”
