Stabbing Victim Rushed From Hawthorne Home, Police Release Few Details

A person suffering from several stab wounds was rushed from a multi-family home on the 200 block of Westervelt Avenue in Hawthorne to a Paterson trauma center, with first responders finding the victim alert and conscious when they arrived on scene.

Hawthorne EMS transported the victim to St. Joseph's University Medical Center in Paterson, according to Daily Voice, which first reported the incident. A paramedic team from Valley Hospital assisted Hawthorne EMTs at the scene, part of the regional emergency medical response structure that pairs municipal volunteer EMTs with hospital-based Mobile Intensive Care Units for high-acuity trauma calls across Passaic and Bergen counties.

St. Joseph's University Medical Center is a state-designated Level II Trauma Center and one of the busiest emergency departments in the country, handling more than 150,000 emergency visits annually as of 2026, which explains why suburban Passaic County municipalities like Hawthorne rely on it for serious injuries requiring specialized care.

Multiple Departments Responded to the Scene

Both Hawthorne police officers and Prospect Park police officers entered the dwelling following the stabbing, the outlet's report notes, while officers from both departments handled crowd control on the street outside. The cross-border assistance reflects long-standing mutual aid agreements between Hawthorne and neighboring Prospect Park, which allow police, fire, and emergency personnel to provide immediate support during active incidents in Passaic County.

According to the Borough of Hawthorne's Affordable Housing Update, twelve affordable units were constructed at the Westervelt Avenue Group Home.

Photographer Boyd A. Loving, credited with the article's photograph, reported that the stabbing victim was rushed to the hospital from the scene. Police at the scene did not release information about how the injuries occurred or about the severity of the victim's injuries, per the same account. Daily Voice said it reached out to police for further details.

Few Answers on What Led to the Stabbing

No suspect has been identified or apprehended in connection with the stabbing, and no motive has been released by investigators. Any eventual charges would likely fall under New Jersey's aggravated assault statute, N.J.S.A. 2C:12-1(b), which classifies causing or attempting to cause bodily injury with a deadly weapon as a crime carrying potential prison terms of three to five years for third-degree offenses or five to ten years for second-degree offenses, according to Justia Law. Under Passaic County Prosecutor's Office directives, local departments are required to consult with on-call assistant prosecutors when investigating violent crimes involving deadly weapons, meaning county prosecutors are likely maintaining an oversight role in the Hawthorne case even though the Hawthorne Police Department, led by Chief James W. Knepper and its force of 39 sworn officers, is handling the primary investigation.

A Rare Violent Incident for a Quiet Borough

Hawthorne is a compact suburban community of about 19,637 residents spread across roughly 3 square miles, situated just north of Paterson, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. The borough's violent crime rate sits at approximately 25.1 per 100,000 residents as of FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data compiled in 2024, more than 50% below the national average, making a stabbing like this one a notable break from the norm locally. Passaic County as a whole recorded a violent crime rate of roughly 7.11 per 1,000 residents in 2024, well above New Jersey's statewide average of 2.18 per 1,000, though that gap is driven largely by higher crime rates in urban centers like Paterson and Passaic rather than in quieter towns such as Hawthorne.

Westervelt Avenue has seen its share of major emergency responses this year. In April, a house fire on the same street spread across multiple neighboring structures, injuring three firefighters and triggering a second-alarm regional response, according to News 12 Hudson Valley. Whether the stabbing is connected to any prior incidents at the address remains unknown, and police have not indicated a timeline for releasing further information about the case.