A 20-year-old man who cut ahead of other customers in a “jumbo slice” pizza line early Sunday stabbed a man who confronted him, D.C. police said, before being knocked unconscious himself.
Police said the argument began just before 4 a.m. when the suspect, Jose Nelson Melendez Rodriguez, skipped ahead in line at Jumbo Pizza, 1344 U St. NW, in an incident first reported by Borderstan.
When a man took issue with the line-jumping, Rodriguez suggested taking matters outside-- which they did.
It was at that point that Rodriguez fetched a knife from his bookbag and stabbed the man, according to a D.C. Police incident report. The victim punched Rodriguez in retaliation, knocking him unconscious, according to the report. Later, one of the stabbing victim’s friends kicked Rodriguez in the head, the report said.
Rodriguez was placed under arrest, charged with assault with a deadly weapon and taken to Washington Hospital Center, police said. The man who kicked him, 20-year-old Justin Anthony McKinney, of Glen Burnie, Md., was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault and taken to the Third District police precinct.
The stabbing victim was taken the a local hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, according to D.C. Police spokesman Officer Sean Hickman.