Pink

ELKINS — A Japanese restaurant employee has been arrested after allegedly stabbing a co-worker.

Shi Span Pink, 48, is charged with malicious assault and malicious wounding. He is being held in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $15,000 cash-only bond.

Pink allegedly cut the face of Shu Shuo Chen, 56, during an altercation at Sakura Japanese Restaurant in Elkins at about 1:30 p.m. Friday, police said.

According to the criminal complaint, prepared by Trooper H.J. Bonetti, of the Elkins Detachment of the West Virginia State Police, police obtained a recorded statement from a witness, who said an argument broke out between Pink and Xue Ying Xheng, another employee at the restaurant.

The witness said Pink struck Xue Xheng with two spatulas, and when Shu Shuo Chen tried to “intervene” between the two, Pink “grabbed a knife and struck the victim in the right facial region,” the complaint states.

Bonetti said he observed a “laceration approximately six inches in length” on Chen’s face, and observed a “laceration on (Pink’s) left middle finger,” the complaint states.

Bonetti and Senior Deputy T.J. Knotts collected the knife, Pink’s shirt and Chen’s apron as evidence, according to the complaint.

Both Pink and Chen were taken to a Davis Medical Center for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Several off-duty police officers were eating in the restaurant at the time of the incident and broke up the fight, State Police said.

The West Virginia State Police, Randolph County Sheriff’s Office, Elkins City Police Department and Randolph County Emergency Squad all had representatives at the scene of the incident.