Suspect in Massachusetts movie theater stabbings to be arraigned

A Massachusetts man will be arraigned on Tuesday on multiple charges including assault with the intent to murder after six people, among them four girls at a movie theater, were stabbed in separate attacks, officials said.

Jared Ravizza, 26, of Chilmark, a town on Martha’s Vineyard, was arrested on Saturday night after a police pursuit.

Police said a person entered the AMC Braintree 10 south of Boston about 6pm Saturday and went into one of the theaters without paying.

The girls, ages nine to 17, were inside the theater when the individual suddenly attacked them “without saying anything and without any warning” before running out, the Braintree police department said in a news release.

The four suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to hospitals.

Video footage showed the suspect’s vehicle and a license plate – and that information was broadcast to law enforcement, police said.

A vehicle matching that description was later seen in Plymouth, about 27 miles (43km) south of Braintree. Police said it had left a McDonald’s restaurant, where a 21-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man were found stabbed. Both were taken to hospitals with injuries.

Surveillance video appears to show Ravizza allegedly reaching through the drive-through window and stabbing the man with a large knife, according to the district attorney’s office.

State police found the vehicle another 20 miles south, in Sandwich, and unsuccessfully attempted to pull it over. The vehicle later crashed.

Ravizza, the driver, was taken into custody shortly afterward and was being treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Ravizza is being charged in the restaurant attack and is being investigated in the theater stabbings, officials said.

Ravizza was arrested in April on Martha’s Vineyard and charged with assault and battery on a family or household member, as well as vandalism, after he allegedly attacked his father, according to court records, the Boston Globe reported.

Ravizza’s father told officers that Ravizza “had just had a mental break and attacked him” inside his home, according to the police report.

The newspaper reported that Ravizza was sent to Martha’s Vineyard hospital for a mental health evaluation – but he “did not meet their standards to be held″, the report said. The Edgartown case was sent to pre-trial diversion.

On Tuesday, the New York Post reported that Ravizza had gotten into a heated dispute with neighbors hours before the stabbings for which he has been arrested. The neighbors had reportedly called the police on Ravizza’s roommate for allegedly trespassing, and Ravizza is said to have thrown a shovel through the neighbors’ window.

It was not immediately known if Ravizza has an attorney who can speak on his behalf. No phone listing could be found in Ravizza’s name.