An 8-year-old boy was playing video games at a New York Dave & Buster’s Friday night when a man walked up to him and stabbed him five times in the back. Evan Sachs, 23, is accused of the apparently premeditated, but random, attack—he was allegedly carrying a note indicating that he planned to hurt a child, but does not appear to have any connection to the victim, the New York Daily News reports. The boy suffered a collapsed lung, but is in stable condition.
Sachs, who has a history of mental illness, allegedly used a 3½-inch hunting knife to stab the boy as his mother stood 20 feet away. The note he was carrying allegedly read that he had “intention to kill,” a source tells the New York Post. Sachs confessed to the crime, sources say, but Gothamist reports that he pleaded not guilty to charges including attempted second degree murder.