Authorities in Alaska’s capital city arrested a South African cruise ship worker on Tuesday for allegedly stabbing a woman and two security guards with scissors on board the ship.
The US Attorney’s Office has charged 35-year-old Ntando Sogoni with assault with a deadly weapon within maritime and territorial jurisdiction. Online court records show that the 35-year-old man does not have a lawyer.
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FBI Special Agent Matthew Judy filed an affidavit stating that a cruise line recently hired the individual, who boarded the Norwegian Encore in Seattle on Sunday. That day, the ship embarked on a weeklong journey that included landings in Alaska ports, including Juneau, and British Columbia.
The claimed incident occurred west of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, as the ship was heading to Alaska. According to the affidavit, during the late evening on Sunday, ship crew noticed the man attempting to deploy a lifeboat and sent him to a medical clinic for treatment.
The affidavit claims that while there, he “became irrational and attempted to leave,” as well as “physically attacked” a guard and a nurse. He raced into another room, grabbed a pair of scissors, and stabbed a woman being examined, as well as two guards who attempted to interfere, before being apprehended and put in a “shipboard jail,” according to the affidavit. None of the injuries were deemed life-threatening.
The US Attorney’s Office reports that the FBI arrested him after the ship arrived in Juneau on Tuesday.
If convicted, Sogoni faces a maximum sentence of ten years in jail and a $250,000 fine for each offense. A federal district court judge will decide the penalty.
