Background: Walnut Street in Greenville, Ohio (Google Maps). Inset: Matthew Earl McKnight (Darke County Sheriff’s Department).
A man who had become a fixture in an Ohio neighborhood was asking local residents for a cigarette — and ended up getting stabbed to death, reportedly by a man wielding a samurai sword-like weapon.
Matthew Earl McKnight was arrested at the scene on Nov. 16 for the alleged murder of Kyle Brown remains in custody at the Darke County Jail. Greenville Police Chief Ryan Benge told WHIO, a local CBS affiliate, that “the two do know each other. I’m not going to comment yet on past disagreements or what may have led up to it.”
According to neighbors at the apartment block on Walnut Street, Brown was homeless but well-known to residents in the area. Sheila Horne told WHIO that she would often “sit with” Brown so he had someplace to go during the day, explaining that he “lived at the bridge.”
On the day Brown was killed, he was reportedly asking around for a cigarette.
“I didn’t have any, so he went next door and that guy just took some kind of a sword, samurai sword and stabbed him,” Horne said, referring to McKnight. She described her own previous run-in with McKnight, saying that “[h]e pulled a knife on me before because I went over to ask for a cigarette one day, and I had to run. But he was very mentally ill and he’d sit up all through the night and yell and scream.”
WHIO reported that police arrived and arrested McKnight after he threatened the guest of another tenant in the apartment block. After the alleged attack by McKnight, Brown was flown to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton where he was pronounced dead.
Greenville detectives said they are investigating McKnight’s time living at the apartment block to find evidence of past complaints or incidents.
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