Rebecca Dantuono

The Republic | azcentral.com

Two Phoenix police officers were rushed to a hospital after one of them was stabbed in the leg and the other one hurt in the forehead by a suspect in handcuffs, officials said.

The suspect, a 60-year-old man, was handcuffed and sitting in the back of a patrol car when he revealed a knife and lunged at the officers as they stood just outside the open car door, according to Sgt. Alan Pfohl, a Phoenix police spokesman.

Pfohl said the suspect stabbed one officer, a Phoenix police officer for 11 years, in the back of the leg. The officer's partner, a 22-year veteran, suffered injuries to his forehead in the struggle to control the suspect, Pfohl said. Both officers were taken to hospital in stable condition.

It happened outside a Circle K near 17th Avenue and Van Buren Street. The officers were there for an unrelated call when someone approached them about 9:30 a.m. and asked them to check out a suspicious man who had been wandering the area all morning in a white van, Pfohl said.

Officers took the man into custody after determining that the vehicle had been reported stolen.

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