Update 2/27/25: Officer Joshua McKnight will be discharged from Cooper Medical Center Thursday afternoon.
A Camden County Police officer is in critical condition after he was stabbed during a business check Sunday night.
The officer, 28, was patrolling South Camden just before 6 p.m. and stopped at Duran Grocery at Broadway and Chestnut streets. After he left his vehicle to speak with someone outside the store, Richard Dennis, 38, of Lindenwold, New Jersey, allegedly approached him from behind and struck him in the neck, NBC10 reported.
The officer has not been named, but he is reportedly a military veteran and has worked with the police department for two years.
He was taken to Cooper University Hospital by another officer who responded to the scene and was in critical but stable condition as of late Sunday night. He required emergency surgery, 6ABC reported.
Dennis was arrested shortly after the alleged stabbing and charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, unlawful possession of a weapon and related charges. He is being held at the Camden County Correctional Facility.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin released a statement that referenced two shootings of police officers in other states.
"Over the course of this weekend, police officers were shot and killed in Virginia and Pennsylvania, and now this violent attack on an officer has occurred closer to home here in New Jersey," Platkin wrote. "No acts of violence can be condoned, in particular ones that target our heroic law enforcement professionals."
Statement of Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin on the Stabbing of a Camden County Police Department Officer pic.twitter.com/WrzCSAbzW9
— Attorney General Matt Platkin (@NewJerseyOAG) February 24, 2025