Several Stabbed Near Emerson College In Boston

Around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, as bars on the city's Tremont Street were closing, six people were reportedly stabbed in Boston near Emerson College. According to The Boston Globe, Emerson College, an art and communication school in downtown Boston, first warned students about the incident via email. A suspect may have remained at large as of later Sunday morning.

According to the Globe's report, a total of six people were stabbed in the incident, with one victim remaining in critical condition on Sunday morning. At least one local media report placed the victim count at seven people in total. Boston Police Superintendent Bernard O'Rourke said police have identified one suspect, and that one of the stabbing victims may be the suspect. Emerson College's email alert to students, however, reportedly warned of two suspects.

O'Rourke reportedly described the stabbing wounds that police found on victims, saying that some appeared to have been stabbed with a knife, while others had been stabbed with bottles. Police had set up crime scene tape outside of several bars and clubs on Tremont Street. It's unclear how the stabbing began or why the violence broke out, but news of the stabbing has understandably caused concern on Sunday, particularly in light of other recent incidents in other parts of the country.

Sunday's stabbing in Boston comes just about a week after a stabbing at a Minnesota mall. That incident occurred last Saturday at Crossroads Center mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota. It left nine people wounded, although none of the injuries were life-threatening. ISIS claimed responsibility for the Minnesota attack, but no connection between the Minnesota incident and Sunday's incident in Boston had been reported as of Sunday morning.

Regardless of the motive associated with this latest stabbing incident, the news from Boston raises concern at a time when much of the country is already on high alert. In Charlotte, North Carolina, violent protests have swept through the city's uptown district in the wake of a police shooting that killed Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old African-American man. A similar police shooting occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a female police officer was charged with manslaughter on Thursday.

Although many details have not yet been confirmed in the Boston stabbing, reports of violence have hit the country hard this week. The incidents from Minnesota, Boston, Charlotte, and elsewhere don't all have to be connected to raise concern across the country.