A two-year-old girl fights for her life after a stranger allegedly stabbed her in the face at a Providence bus stop, yet the suspect had attacked two other children over 20 years ago and was never prosecuted because courts repeatedly deemed him incompetent to stand trial.
Pattern of Violence Against Children
Nelson Blanco, 46, allegedly stabbed the toddler and her mother Wednesday afternoon as they waited near a Rhode Island school bus stop. The mother crossed the street with the stroller to escape, but Blanco pursued them and attacked the child with a knife, according to Providence police. Officers found Blanco hiding in a nearby basement with the weapon concealed in a panel box. He admitted to the stabbings and told detectives he only stopped because he was on a main street, adding that if he had been on a side street, he would have killed both victims.
The attack brought painful memories flooding back for Andy Lopez and Dave Belony, now adults, who were six and seven years old when Blanco stabbed them in Lopez’s backyard on September 27, 2003. Belony recognized Blanco’s booking photo immediately on social media. Court records show Blanco faced two felony assault charges from that incident, but was found incompetent to stand trial repeatedly from September 2004 through March 2006. The case remains listed as under review more than two decades later.
System Failures and Second Chances
More recently, a judge found Blanco incompetent to stand trial in July for a separate domestic violence case. The court accepted a doctor’s recommendation allowing him to remain in outpatient treatment because he was considered unlikely to endanger the community or himself. That assessment came just months before Wednesday’s attack on the toddler. Belony described the 2003 attack in vivid detail, recalling how Blanco emerged from a shed behind the house without saying a word, his face blank. Lopez suffered stab wounds to his eye that left him temporarily blind, while Belony was trapped against a tree and stabbed repeatedly. Both children spent three months recovering at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, the same facility now treating the two-year-old victim.
Questions About Public Safety
Blanco now faces six charges, including two counts of assault with intent to commit murder. He is being held without bail pending a competency hearing later this month. The case raises urgent questions about how the justice system handles defendants deemed incompetent to stand trial, particularly when they have documented histories of violent attacks against children. The mother suffered a stab wound to the shoulder and was treated and released, while her daughter remains in critical condition fighting for survival.