BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- A woman inside the bathroom at JCPenney when another shopper was stabbed Tuesday said out of nowhere a woman screamed.
"There was never a noise - I was in the stall and she screamed. There was no scuffling nothing was said at all," said Jill Hunter Smith.
Smith said she made a last minute decision to go shopping at the Bangor Mall JCPenney Tuesday. She was in the bathroom stall when she heard a woman scream, and immediately rushed to help her.
"She pulled her shirt off so that we could see that she had a wound in her back. She was still screaming at that point that she had been stabbed, so they got a towel and we applied pressure, tried to get the bleeding to stop and sat her down. Her grandmother came in...and (we) tried to figure out what had happened," she said.
Smith said the victim was standing at the sink washing her hands when a female came up behind her.
"We assume she came out of the stall next to me because I did hear a door open," Hunter-Smith said. That's when she sprung into action.
When asked if she was afraid for her own life at any time, Hunter-Smith said she was too busy helping the victim to think about that.
"My main concern has been for her, hoping she will feel comfortable going back out again feel comfortable going out in public places."
Police said the same woman, Elizabeth Ellis, stabbed two people at the Bangor Mall Tuesday, one at JCPenney and another at American Eagle. The stabbings happened just before noon and police arrested Ellis around 6 p.m. Police said neither victim knew Ellis and the stabbings appear to be random.
Both of the victims were treated and released from the hospital Tuesday. The person who was stabbed at American Eagle Outfitters told NEWS CENTER she's doing okay.
