When city police took Tristan Pequignot into custody late Friday night just minutes after a downtown stabbing, the 24-year-old man had on him “a black folding knife covered in blood,” it was stated in a criminal complaint.

On parole for burglary, Pequignot was nabbed in the first block of West Fourth Steet, Williamsport, where he is alleged to have stabbed another male in the back about 11:10 p.m., police said.

The victim, a delivery person, told investigators that Pequignot confronted him “and tried to start a fight with him,” it was stated in an affidavit.

“Pequignot was rambling and told the victim he was going to kill him,” it was alleged in the court document.

Police said it appeared the two men did know one another.

“It appears to be a random act,” an officer said.

The motive for the attack was unknown.

Fearing for his life, the victim attempted to get into a business in an effort to get away, but Pequignot stopped him and then allegedly stabbed him in the right side of the back with his pocket knife, police said.

While Pequignot was under arrest, the victim was taken by ambulance to UPMC Williamsport to get medical treatmentfor his injuries.

When Pequignot, of 616 W. Edwin St., Williamsport,

initally went before District Judge William Solomon two hours later to face felony and misdemeanor charges, the magistrate declared him unfit and ordered him to the Lycoming County Prison.

Pequignot was arraigned late Saturday afternoon on charges of aggravated and simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, terroristic threats and possession of an instrument of crime, Pequignot was recommitted in lieu of $125,000 bail.

Formerly of Bloomsburg, Pequignot was arrested in October 2021 after breaking into a home on Lycoming Mall Drive in Fairfield Township, brutally assaulting a great-grandmother during a domestic disturbance in which he attempted to harm himself with a knife, state police alleged.

Pequignot fled the home, but was apprehended following a high-speed pursuit that ended only after troopers conducted what’s called “a precision immobilization technique.”