A fight inside or near a Westwood grocery store boiled over into violence Saturday, leaving one person hospitalized and another in custody after a stabbing at the Kroger on Glenway Avenue. Cincinnati police say the altercation broke out around noon between two people, and it ended with someone wounded badly enough to need a trip to the hospital.
According to WLWT, the incident happened at the Kroger store at 6165 Glenway Avenue after a fight broke out between two people sometime around noon on Saturday. The stabbing victim reportedly sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to the hospital from the scene, the station reported.
Cincinnati police had not immediately shared additional details in the hours after the incident, per the same report, leaving basic questions open: what sparked the fight, who was carrying the knife, and whether anyone besides the hospitalized victim was hurt. The outlet noted it was still working to learn more about what happened.
A Neighborhood Already Under Scrutiny
The Glenway Avenue Kroger sits in a neighborhood that led Cincinnati in overall reported crime last year. Westwood recorded 2,137 crimes in 2025, the highest total of any neighborhood in the city, according to Spectrum News 1. That came even as Cincinnati's citywide crime reports fell from 24,349 in 2024 to 23,424 in 2025, the outlet found.
Other citywide measures also moved in a more encouraging direction last year. The city logged 712 aggravated assaults and 61 homicides in 2025, down from 758 assaults and 65 homicides the year before, Spectrum News 1 reported, and robberies dropped from 689 to 603 over the same stretch.
More recent neighborhood-level numbers point to some relief in Westwood specifically. WCPO reported that violent-crime incidents in Westwood dropped by nearly half, from 17 to 9, during a recent month-long period, even as citywide violent crime ticked up slightly, with 818 incidents reported so far this year compared to 813 over the same period last year. Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge told the station that shootings citywide were down 26% from the previous year.
A Department Stretched Thin
Any investigation into Saturday's stabbing unfolds against the backdrop of a police force that is, by its own numbers, short-staffed. WCPO reported that CPD has a sworn complement of 1,059 officers but is currently down around 130 officers, a gap the city is attempting to close with a lateral academy class for already-certified officers that is expected to cost roughly $10 million.
This is not the first violent incident reported at a Westwood Kroger. In a separate, earlier case, police said a woman named Ashley Rhoads, 23, of Harrison, Ohio, tried to rob a woman in a Kroger parking lot and slashed her with a large knife, according to WCPO. That victim was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for treatment, and others who were hurt in the scuffle were treated at the scene; Rhoads was later booked on two counts of felonious assault and one count of aggravated robbery, with bond set at $100,000. That case is unrelated to Saturday's stabbing and involved a different set of circumstances.
As of Saturday evening, Cincinnati police had not released the identities of either person involved in the Glenway Avenue stabbing, nor any information about potential charges. WLWT said it was continuing to work to learn more about the incident, and Hoodline will update this story as additional details become available.
