Toddler critically hurt in Providence stabbing; suspect had earlier been found incompetent for trial

Right · 2A 2-year-old girl was in critical condition after she and her mother were stabbed on a Providence, Rhode Island, street in broad daylight on Wednesday, according to the Providence Police Department. 1 2 Right · 1Police arrested Nelson Blanco, 46, who "appears to be homeless," and who Police Chief Oscar Perez said did not know the victims; the mother was waiting with her daughter in a stroller for her other children to leave school. 1 Right · 2According to the account relayed by both outlets, Blanco yelled insults at the mother and, when she tried to cross the street to get away, attacked her and the girl; the New York Post reported the mother was pulled before the attack. 1 2

Right · 2Bystanders intervened and Blanco fled, then broke into an elderly woman's house and hid in the basement, Perez said, before being arrested. 1 2 Right · 2Blanco faces two counts of assault with intent to commit murder, assault with a deadly weapon and breaking and entering, among other charges. 1 2 Right · 1A witness, nursing assistant Jessie Palmer, told ABC 7 she helped the girl out of the carriage and applied pressure to the bleeding, and that with another woman she performed CPR after the child stopped breathing, until an ambulance arrived. 2

Right · 2Blanco was charged in 2003 with stabbing two 7-year-old boys in a parking lot in Providence and was deemed incompetent to stand trial in that case, as reported by the Providence Journal and WJAR. 1 2 Right · 1WJAR reported that Blanco spent years at Eleanor Slater Hospital and that the public defender in that case, retired attorney David Levy, said Blanco had to be released under state law, which requires charges to be dismissed once commitment reaches two-thirds of the maximum possible prison term for the most serious charge. 2 Right · 2Blanco was arrested for domestic violence in 2024 and again found incompetent; a judge approved outpatient treatment after a doctor found Blanco "not a danger to the community or himself," and Blanco was released in 2025 into the custody of state health and human services, Perez confirmed. 2 1

Right · 1Court records also show a nearly 30-year record of charges including assault and battery, breaking and entering and possession of a stolen vehicle; Blanco was found incompetent in a 2018 stolen-vehicle case, and a state agency said Blanco has an intellectual disability disorder and schizophrenia, according to documents seen by the Boston Globe. 1 Right · 1Asked why Blanco was on the street, Perez said, "I don't think the system is broken," adding that police must present the facts to the judicial system. 1