Crime & Safety

Portsmouth Man Arrested in Middletown Stabbing

The following arrest was reported by the Middletown Police Station. An arrest does not indicate a conviction.

A second arrest was made Tuesday morning after a 29-year-old Newport man was allegedly stabbed at Scotty Big Dawg's early Sunday morning.  

Middletown police charged Gregory Purdy, 30, of 63 Bristol Ferry Road, Portsmouth, with assault with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy, both felonies. 

On Sunday, police arrested Quinci Hill, 23, of Newport on a felony assault with a dangerous weapon charge after they found him on-scene with bloody shirt.

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To read the full story of the first arrest, click here.

Police said they found the victim behind Dunkin Donuts with stab wounds to his stomach and up the left side of his chest area. Witnesses said after he was stabbed, he went to his house on Woolsey Road, changed his shirt and was going back to the bar.

The night of the stabbing, Purdy went to the Middletown Police Station and told police he witnessed the incident. He told police he was smoking marijuana outside the bar with Hill when a man approached them and began to fight. Purdy told police it was not until the end of the fight that he realized the man had been stabbed.  

Purdy said he had put the victim in a headlock to try to stop the fight. He told police he thought Hill was punching the victim in the stomach, and only saw the knife on the last punch. He described the knife as a silver pocket knife, about four-inches long, said police. 

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On the surveillance video, police confirmed his story - that Purdy held down the victim while Hill stabbed him. At the hospital, the victim reportedly told detectives that a white man with a bald head and a goatee, which police said matches Purdy's description, held him from behind while Hill allegedly stabbed him.

Police said they threw the knife over a fence into the parking lot behind China Star. Purdy said they then picked up the knife, walked to Hess Station and bought a cigar. On the way back to the bar, he said Hill allegedly dropped the knife into the drain by the exit of Home Depot. Police found the knife in that area.  

Purdy said when they got back to the bar, he could not believe the victim was still there. Hill said “people were on their way to the bar,” he reportedly told police. Purdy told police he was not sure what Hill meant by that statement but wanted to go to the police station to report the incident.

Two men walked through the door and started to fight with Hill, Purdy said.

Purdy told police it was at that point he left the bar and went to the station. Police called Purdy on Monday and informed him of the charges. He turned himself in Tuesday morning. 


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