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Police: Teen used sword in attack

Watson being charged as adult for assault on home nurse

A visit to a North Woodbury home Wednesday night turned into a nightmare for a home nurse who state police said was attacked by a sword-wielding 15-year-old boy.

The woman was taken to UPMC Altoona with serious injuries and state police indicated she underwent emergency surgery.

According to charges filed by state police, 15-year-old Michael D. Watson told the nurse, who was at the home to tend to the teenager’s grandfather, that he would walk her outside as she wrapped up the visit.

As the woman walked to her car about 11:45 p.m., Watson followed, directed the woman in a different direction and grabbed an 18-inch knife he had stuck in the ground by its blade just minutes earlier.

The nurse, who talked to state police on the phone before she was taken to UPMC Altoona, said Watson then “hit her” and knocked her to the ground. She said Watson stabbed her several times with something that was very long, although she didn’t know what exactly the boy had used, state police noted in the charges.

State police said the nurse managed to grab the blade and push Watson away before she got in her car, locked the doors and drove off.

State police indicated the nurse identified her attacker as Watson and described him as being between 15 and 16, chubby with red hair.

The woman told state police she was “bleeding very badly from her neck, her hand and her finger is nearly severed,” Trooper Jennifer Wills wrote in the charges.

When state police arrived at the home, they saw Watson looking out the window. Troopers asked that he come outside and he did, with state police noting he matched the description given by the nurse.

After state police got permission from his mother and read the teenager his rights, Watson allegedly told troopers he stabbed the nurse and then showed them where he hid the knife.

It was located — bloodied and sticking out of the ground — in some woods about 30 yards from the front porch of the home. State police described it as green, with a large blade, black handle and about 18 inches in length.

After Watson was taken to the Hollidaysburg state police station, he allegedly agreed to talk and was again read his rights, according to the charges.

Watson allegedly said the nurse arrived at his home after his grandfather fell earlier that night. When she was about 15 minutes from finishing her work, Watson walked outside, opened the trunk to a vehicle, retrieved the sword and stuck it in the ground. He then walked back inside, state police noted.

The teenager said when he walked outside again with the nurse, he directed her down a different path and as she approached her car, he grabbed the sword.

The nurse was standing at her open car door when Watson attacked her from behind and struck her in the back of the neck. Watson told state police she turned around and he kept striking her with the sword, knocking her to the ground. It was then she grabbed the sword’s blade, and he pulled it away from her. Watson said he stopped the attack and she pushed him away, got in her car, locked the doors and drove away.

Watson told state police he next washed his hands and legs and changed clothes, which consisted of a red shirt, neon yellow shorts, white socks and red sneakers, in the bathroom. He hid the clothes under bags of trash on the porch. Police said the teenager mentioned the blood on his clothes and glasses when he retold the story.

The teenager said he then prepared some food for his mother and stepfather and took it to them in the upstairs of the house.

Watson, who is being charged as an adult, faces felony counts of attempted homicide and aggravated assault as well as misdemeanor charges of possessing instruments of crime, recklessly endangering another person and tampering with evidence. He was arraigned Thursday afternoon by Magisterial District Judge Paula Aigner. Bail was set at $500,000 cash, and he was placed in Blair County Prison with a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 28 at the Blair County Courthouse.

Mirror Staff Writer Greg Bock is at 946-7458.

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