Bend Woman Stabbed In Heart; Suspect Arrested

A fight among “numerous” people led to a 20-year-old Bend woman being stabbed in the heart Tuesday afternoon, police said. Another20-year-old Bend woman was arrested on attempted murder and other charges after several witnesses chased her fleeing car.

The altercation happened around 4:20 p.m. at Southeast Scott and Second streets “involving numerous subjects,” police Sgt. Brian Kindel said.

During the fight, Kelly Ann Jackson, 19, of Bend, was stabbed in the chest, allegedly by Kelsey Chania Blank, 20, also of Bend, Kindel said.

Several citizens witnessed the assault and followed Bank’s fleeing car, Kindel said. The citizens were able to contact one man also in the car, but a second man ran away, he added.

Meanwhile, back at the crime scene, Dianne Ashworth was just getting off work when she spotted Jackson clutching her chest.

“It was bleeding pretty good andI told them I’d take them to the hospital,” she said.

Ashworth was rushing Jackson to the hospital in her car, but pulled over near Third Street and Revere Avenue when she started faring worse.

“She said she was having a hard time breathing, and she said she getting ready to pass out, and then she started going into little seizures, So I didn’t want to take any chances, and I pulled over, got her out of the car, elevated her feet and we called the ambulance,” Ashworth said.

James Manning says he just happened to be driving by when the fight broke out.

“They screamed at us to call 9-1-1. and there was a girl holding her chest and it was all bloody,” he said.

Manning said the men who started the fight took off with the suspect and he gave chase by car.

“They took off and we pursued them,” he said. “And they took us on a wild goose chase around – well, I’m not from here, so we just drove all around while we’re on the phone with the cops, trying to tell them where we were,” until they pulled over near the railroad tracks at Division Street and Revere Avenue.

It wasn’t long before police caught up with Kelsey Blank, still bloody from the fight.

Blank was taken into custody without incident at the spot where the men fled the car, Kindel said, adding that the suspect and victim “were known to one another.”

Blank waslodged in the Deschutes County Jail late Tuesday on charges of attempted murder, first-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon and conspiracy to commit murder, Kindel said. Bail was set at $355,000.

Friends of the victim, reportedlyin improving conditionWednesday, remained in shock over the crime.

One friend, who wanted to remain anonymous, says Kelly had just moved back from Alaska a few weeks ago, and was trying to turn her life around.

“She didn’t really even know anyone in town yet,” the friend said. “I don’t think she even knew the girl.”