A homeless man who was angry about coronavirus shutdowns brutally attacked a husband and wife in Tennessee, leaving them in critical condition in hospital, police said.
Kelvin D. Edwards, 35, attacked 55-year-old Kevin Craft and his wife Leanne Craft, 50, as they waited inside a Public Storage at 800 5th Avenue South in Nashville on Sunday afternoon, the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) said in a news release.
Police said Edwards took the machete from his bin at the storage facility and entered an office at the facility where he attacked the couple—who were there as customers—without warning.
BREAKING: Kelvin Edwards, 35, will be taken to jail soon for this afternoon's random machete attack on a husband & wife in the office of Public Storage, 800 5th Av S. The victims are in critical cond. 6 MNPD officers applied multiple tourniquets in an effort to save their lives. pic.twitter.com/QmzEGmcOz1
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) May 18, 2020
Edwards "repeatedly struck the victims with his machete, even after they were on the floor badly bleeding," police said.
Six responding officers used multiple tourniquets on the couple in an effort to control the bleeding. The couple were transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where they are in a critical condition. The hospital has been contacted for comment.
After the attack, Edwards walked out of the storage facility, threw the machete down and stood in the street with his hands raised his surrender, police said.
Officers had him in custody three minutes after police got a 911 call alerting them to the attack at 2.47 p.m.
He was charged on Sunday night with two counts of attempted murder for the "callous" and "unprovoked" attack on the Crafts, the MNPD said.
Edwards, who is homeless, told investigators that he was angry about the shutdowns in place due to the coronavirus pandemic and his inability to get into Rescue Mission, an organization that serves the homeless community.
"It appears Edwards retrieved the machete from his bin and explained that he decided to demonstrate his anger in the violent attack on the Crafts, who he did not know," police said.
The Nashville Rescue Mission's website says it has remained open to provide shelter to more than 800 people every night amid the pandemic. It also says that no cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, have been identified at its shelters.
Davidson County, which includes Nashville, has more than 3,800 cases of coronavirus and 44 deaths, according to the Tennessee Department of Health. Across the state, there are more than 17,000 cases and 298 deaths.
Police said Edwards, who was carrying an Arkansas driver license on Sunday, has been in Nashville since at least 2016—the year he was first arrested in the city.
He was convicted of felony vandalism in 2017 and was also convicted for assault after spitting on two Davidson County sheriff's deputies while in jail.
This infographic, provided by Statista, shows the spread of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. as of May 18.
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