Splattered blood stained a Highland Plantation Apartments unit and the area surrounding it this weekend after a 30-year-old resident was stabbed, but reports of the incident  are conflicting.
Sgt. Don Kelly, Baton Rouge Police Department spokesman, said BRPD officers were called to the Highland Road apartment around 3 a.m. on Saturday morning. He said the unidentified victim sustained non-fatal stab wounds to the upper chest and arm. Kelly said the victim initially told officers he was stabbed near Florida Street and Jasmine Boulevard, but later changed his story to say the stabbing occurred at Sherwood Forest and Coursey boulevards.
The apartment complex is no longer a crime scene, but no further information regarding the investigation is available because it is still ongoing, Kelly said.
But residents say the victim’s story does not match up with events on Saturday.
Jake LeBas, painting and drawing sophomore and Highland Plantation resident, said he saw the victim, his neighbor, walking around the apartment complex earlier in the day, knocking on other residents’ doors.
Later that night, the man was again walking around the complex but covered in blood, according to another resident, Roland Parker, graphic design sophomore. LeBas said he, Parker and friends then called the police.
After assessing the situation, an officer told the group the man claimed he was stabbed on Florida Street and walked back to the apartment, but the officer expressed doubt in the man’s story, saying the blood stains did not match up with reports, LeBas said.
LeBas said he suspects the incident involved the man’s girlfriend, who once lived in the apartment complex but recently moved out.
Multiple blood stains remained after the incident and were not cleaned until Sunday, Parker said. Blood drips and footprints were reported to have been seen along walkways of the apartment complex, and blood surrounded the doorstep of the unit. More stains could be seen inside the unit through an unobstructed window, revealing markings on the carpet trailing to other rooms.
Residents wrote messages, such as “Clean this, BRPD,” in sidewalk chalk near the site of the incident, but Kelly said cleanup is the responsibility of the complex because the property belongs to the owners.
As of Monday night, representatives from Highland Plantation Apartments said they could not comment on the incident.
 
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Contact Brian Sibille at [email protected]