A man was stabbed in the head and neck early Sunday during a fight outside a North Little Rock mall, authorities said.
The 22-year-old victim, Chase Archer, told police he was walking at 3 a.m. near the McCain Mall at 3929 McCain Blvd. when a man approached him from behind, put a knife to his throat and demanded his money.
As he was getting cash from his wallet, he attempted to grab the knife and was stabbed in the right side of his neck and the right side of his head above the ear, according to a report from the city's Police Department.
Archer then fled to his home at the McCain Park Apartments, 3801 McCain Park Drive, where he pulled out the knife that was still lodged in his neck, the report states.
Archer was taken to Baptist Health Medical Center in North Little Rock, where doctors said the cut above his ear penetrated his skull and was potentially serious. The wound on his neck was not considered life-threatening.
Officers said that when they responded to the scene, they were notified of another stabbing victim at CHI St. Vincent North in Sherwood. The 22-year-old patient, Caleb Shaw of Sherwood, had come from the McCain Mall and claimed that Archer had pulled a knife on him and tried to rob him, police wrote.
Archer later changed his story and told authorities he had met Shaw at the mall to buy drugs when the struggle for the knife ensued, police said.
Neither man had been arrested at the time of the report, North Little Rock police spokeswoman Amy Cooper said Tuesday.