When Quinton Joiner stabbed a CTA worker in the neck on a Loop train platform in August, all of the corporate news outlets ran stories. But only CWBChicago followed the case to report that prosecutors only charged Joiner with a misdemeanor and then settled the case less than a month later with a sentence of probation.
On October 16, we exclusively reported that Joiner, still on probation for the CTA stabbing, was arrested again after she walked into a wedding ceremony in Millennium Park and allegedly brandished a knife to steal a woman’s purse.
Once again, she was only charged with misdemeanors. Joiner walked out of the local police station on her own recognizance less than seven hours later.
Within days of her release from CPD custody, Joiner, 37, traveled to a suburb of Tampa, Florida, where she allegedly stabbed two strangers and threatened a third in two separate incidents this month.
Cops arrested her and Florida prosecutors, unlike their Cook County counterparts, charged Joiner with three felonies. A judge ordered her held in lieu of $32,000. She’s still in the Hillsborough County Jail.
Here’s what happened.
“Eviscerated”
At 6:10 p.m. on November 3, Joiner randomly stabbed a man in the back with a knife as he walked with his 9-year-old granddaughter on a Walmart parking lot in Tampa, according to an arrest report and a source.
The victim suffered a ruptured spleen and had to undergo emergency surgery, according to the report. A source said the man was hospitalized for five days.
Joiner “fled the scene on a mountain bicycle … the victim does not know the defendant and the defendant did not make any statements while committing the offense,” a sheriff’s deputy wrote in the report. Walmart security cameras recorded the attack.
Fifteen minutes after the stabbing, a man and his fiancée were walking their dog on a sidewalk in nearby Lutz, Florida, when Joiner rode her bicycle directly into the dog’s leash, a separate arrest report said.
Joiner fell off her bike, got up, and stabbed the man about three inches above his navel, authorities said.
“The knife caused a puncture wound and eviscerated the victim’s intestines which required emergency surgery,” a deputy reported.
Still holding the knife, Joiner allegedly threatened the man’s fiancée before getting back on her bike and riding away.
Sheriff’s deputies found a bloody knife and the bike abandoned nearby. According to the report, a law enforcement aviation unit located Joiner in an adjacent wooded area, and field officers took her into custody. She was allegedly wearing the same distinctive clothing as the attacker who was seen on video of the Walmart attack – black leggings with a blue and yellow short-sleeved shirt.
Joiner invoked her Miranda Rights, the arrest report said.
Hillsborough County prosecutors charged her with two counts of aggravated battery with a weapon causing great bodily harm and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. A source in Florida told CWBChicago that prosecutors there may seek attempted second-degree murder charges in at least one of the attacks.
Unsolved Chicago attacks
The Florida attacks bear strong resemblances to a series of incidents on Chicago’s North Side in June:
- A victim was stabbed in an apparently random attack on the 4800 block of North Marine Drive around 10:45 a.m. on June 5, according to CPD. No further information was available about the incident or the victim.
- At 8:45 p.m. that evening, a woman wearing a pink top attacked a 24-year-old Asian man from behind as he walked with his girlfriend on the 1000 block of West Thorndale, according to a CPD report. Then, she ran away. The victim was transported to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center for treatment.
- Around 4:40 p.m. on June 9, a woman wearing a pink top and jeans implied she had a gun and threatened to shoot a man because he is Asian on the 4800 block of North Broadway, a CPD report said. The man was not injured.
Police said the attacker is a Black woman who stands 5’6″ to 5’8″ tall. CWB learned that the June 9 victim said the woman had very short hair.
Two days later, on June 11, an attacker with long, curly hair stabbed a DJ in the bar area of Mariano’s, 3030 North Broadway. CPD linked the incident to the three previous attacks in a community alert and released video of the Mariano’s suspect:
The June stabbing spree remains unsolved.
