LONGMONT —- Longmont police say they’ve identified one of two men suspected in connection with a Wednesday night stabbing, apparently motivated by a Facebook post.
Mitchell Lee Mailand, 29, is wanted on suspicion of first-degree and second-degree assault. Longmont police have obtained a warrant for Mailand’s arrest, but he remains at large. His bond has been set at $50,000.
According to police, Mailand was an accomplice in the stabbing of a man around 9 p.m. Wednesday on the 300 block of 23rd Avenue in Longmont, before fleeing the scene with another man who police also seek but who has not yet been identified. The two suspects drove up from the Denver area after the victim and one of the two men got in a spat on Facebook, police said.
“It was over a girl,” Longmont Cmdr. Jeff Satur said of the post. “I don’t know what kind of insult it was, or even who made it. One guy sent the other guy kind of a question — ‘Hey, why you saying this?’ — and it just went downhill from there.”
It was the fourth stabbing in a 12-day period in Longmont.
Following the attack, police lined 23rd Avenue between Main and Collyer streets, believing that the suspects had fled in the immediate area. After two hours, the search had turned up nothing, and Sgt. John Wederquist said at that point that they had likely driven back toward Denver.
Mailand has been described as white, 6-feet-3-inches tall and weighing 170 pounds. He has brown hair and hazel eyes, and police believe he “may live in the Denver or Lakewood area.
” He may also be driving a 2000 Buick LeSabre, bearing the license plate “632-VQI”.
The second suspect is described as a Hispanic man, “possibly named Devon or Darian,” with a thin mustache, a “darker skin tone” and gelled hair. He is believed to be between 5-feet-8-inches and 5-feet-11-inches tall.
“This unidentified male had a 6-inch black fixed-blade knife and is believed to be the one who stabbed the victim,” Longmont police said in a news release Friday afternoon.
The victim in the stabbing is a 25-year-old unidentified man, whom Satur said was stabbed four times. He underwent surgery at Longmont United Hospital for injuries that were not considered life-threatening, and he is in recovery.
Anyone with information on the crime is asked to call the Longmont Police Department at 303-651-8501, or Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477. Crime Stoppers offers anonymity to people who provide information about crimes, and anyone who helps lead police to an arrest and filing of charges for this case may be eligible for a reward of up to $2,000.
