Texas Machete Attack: Two People Severely Cut Outside Grocery Store

Police are hunting for a machete-wielding knifeman who attacked two victims outside a grocery store before fleeing.

A man and a woman were stabbed during the attack in Grimes, Texas, on Sunday evening, with the pair being left in critical condition. They were airlifted to a hospital in Houston, where they remain as medics battle to save their lives.

The attack, descried by authorities as an “isolated” incident, suggesting it was a targeted crime not a random one, took place near some mobile homes behind the Shiro Grocery Store. Authorities are searching for prime suspect Elpidio DeLeon Gonzalez, who was believed to be wearing all-black clothing and driving a white Mitsubishi Mirage with the license plate number 93C732A.

The stabbings happened at around 6:30 p.m. local time, the Grimes County Sheriff’s Office said, with a spokesperson telling local news station KBTX 3: “This looks like an isolated situation, and there’s no ongoing threat to the public.”

Newsweek reached out by email to Grimes County Sheriff’s Office for further information and comment.

Images taken at the site by KBTX 3 showed the area lit up with the flashing red and blue lights of emergency vehicles as the sheriff’s team and paramedics converged on the scene. Part of the area was cordoned off with police tape and deputies could be seen going about their work close to some small trailers on the grass behind them. Highway 30 was closed briefly as the investigation unfolded.

The victims were flown to Houston by helicopter, the station reported, and their identities have not been publicly released. Investigators believe the weapon used on them was a machete or something similar.

Prime suspect Gonzalez remains at large, and authorities believe he has family in the Houston area so may be headed there. Reporter Rusty Surette shared a photograph of Gonzalez on social media site X.

The Grimes County Sheriff’s Office appealed for the public’s help, calling for anyone with information about the stabbing or Gonzalez’s whereabouts to contact them. He should not be approached by members of the public, officials told ABC 13.

The knife attack comes just a couple of weeks after the Lone Star state was rocked by another stabbing. An 18-year-old student was knifed to death by a fellow pupil at Manor Senior High School in Travis County on October 29. Suspect Mac Brown Mbah Mbanwei, also 18, was detained after Darrin Loving was killed at the school.