A Camden City police officer is in critical condition Sunday after being stabbed in the line of duty.
Authorities said Officer Richard Harris, a 14-year veteran, was wounded with a knife Saturday night breaking up a fight.
Harris had been directing traffic Broadway and Mickle Boulevard, as a country music concernt was letting out at the Susquehanna Bank Center.
Camden police said a fight broke out on the street around 10:15 p.m. between Ronald Belcher, 28, of Camden, and another man. Officer Harris stepped in to intervene.
The prosecutor's office said that after Harris grabbed Belcher from behind, he spun and drove a knife into the officer's chest. Harris, who was wearing his police uniform and a reflective traffic vest, pulled his service weapon on Belcher, who then dropped his knife.
Another officer on the scene took Belcher into custody. He has been charged with attempted murder. Police also arrested a second man on the scene, 33-year-old Lamont Cloud, charging him with obstructing justice and resisting arrest.
Other officers at the concert did not wait for the ambulance to arrive. They jumped into a traffic cone truck and drove to Cooper Hospital.
Police said they recovered the knife discarded underneath a car. Prosecutors said they did not think that the men involved in the fighting had been attending the country music concert that evening.
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Harris was in stable condition as of Sunday afternoon.
