Meredith Lowell, 35, of Cleveland Heights, is charged with attempted murder and felonious assault in the stabbing that happened about 5:15 p.m. Wednesday at Fairmount Presbyterian Church, according to a Cleveland Heights police report and Police Chief Anne Mecklenburg.
Police believe based on a prior arrest for a similar incident in 2012 that Lowell, an animal-rights activist, stabbed the woman because she was wearing fur, Mecklenburg said.
The victim's current condition was not immediately available, but police said Thursday morning that she was taken to University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. Police report that she was stabbed twice in the arm and once in the abdomen.
Police arrived to the church and found the stabbed woman lying inside of the church and holding her left side, the report says. A man held Lowell down on the floor nearby. She was immediately taken into custody and is in Cleveland Heights City Jail awaiting her first court appearance.
The woman who suffered the stab wounds was a babysitter who dropped off children at the church for choir practice. Witnesses told police that they heard a woman yelling before the babysitter got stabbed.
The children were not hurt.
Employees of the church did not respond to a call for comment Thursday morning.
Comment: Another local news source adds that the activist's previous arrest was for hiring a hitman to kill a person wearing fur. In this instance the woman she attacked was wearing faux fur boots! It appears the animal rights movement has been co-opted because many of its current member's antics seem designed more to inspire fury and disgust than to actually help abused animals.
Animals are not people: Disentangling animal rights vs. animal welfare