Woman details horror of random knife attack on face at Newark Airport terminal
NEWARK, New Jersey -- A North Carolina woman was blindsided Sunday night at Newark Liberty International Airport when a man came up behind her, reached around, and knifed her in the face.
"He had the knife still raised in the air," said Melissa Mauldin, 36, in an exclusive interview with Eyewitness News about her ordeal as she waited to go home at Terminal A.
Port Authority police witnessed a man attack her with a knife on the right side of her face at the Terminal A departures level.
The suspect, Xiong Jin, 54, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a weapon.
Mauldin was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Mauldin recalled how the attack came out of the blue. One second she was inside the terminal watching a little boy play, and the next she felt a tremendous blow to her face.
When she turned around, she saw a man standing in front of her with a bloody knife.
"I felt the force from his fist, and the blade was so short," Mauldin said.
The blade did serious damage to Mauldin's face, requiring 14 stitches to close the gaping cut. Her cheekbone and nose were also fractured.
"I've never not felt secure. And I was telling my fiance Max last night, I feel like all that security is stripped from me and I didn't even do anything to deserve it," Mauldin said.
Mauldin lives just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, and was in the area for a friend's wedding in Hoboken.
The ladies were heading home Sunday evening when the attack happened.
The Port Authority police immediately arrested Jin as strangers rushed to help Mauldin.
"He wasn't there for a flight, he had no bags, he had nothing. He was just there with the intent to hurt somebody," Mauldin said.
Police said Jin has been in and out of prison since 2009 for assault.
"Why are you that evil? He stabbed multiple people before," Mauldin said.
Police said Jin just got out of jail two days before the incident.
Mauldin hopes Jin remains behind bars and gets help so what happened to her doesn't happen to anyone else.
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