Joplin police are investigating a stabbing and assault early Wednesday at a convenience store on Range Line Road.
Steven O. Ochieng, 29, of Joplin, was taken to Freeman Hospital West with a stab wound to his shoulder after the incident at 1:25 a.m. at a Conoco station at 3347 S. Range Line Road, police said.
Police Lt. Brian Lewis said Ochieng and Andrew H. Rachier, 23, of Joplin, were attacked by a group of assailants who pulled into the station in two vehicles while Ochieng and Rachier were attempting to obtain fuel.
Ochieng was stabbed by one of the assailants, and Rachier was hit and kicked by them, Lewis said. The assailants fled in their vehicles, he said. Rachier was treated at the scene and did not require transport to a hospital.
Lewis said the victims did not know their attackers, and that police had yet to locate them by late Wednesday afternoon.
