Man accused in racially motivated stabbing downtown charged in Beaver County attack

BEAVER COUNTY, Pa. — There are new details about the man accused of stabbing two people in a racially motivated attack in Downtown Pittsburgh Thursday night.

We’ve now learned that before the attack in the city, court records say Chris Boswell, 37, was responsible for a similar attack four days prior in Beaver County.

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Before Boswell allegedly stabbed two Black men in downtown Pittsburgh Thursday night, he reportedly terrorized neighbors in New Brighton.

This alleged victim of Boswell didn’t want to identify herself but shared the chain of events that happened Monday evening when she and a friend saw Boswell in the 900 block of 3rd Avenue while taking a walk.

“We passed this gentleman down by a bar,” she said. “He was obviously intoxicated. He was asking us where the bar was which he was standing right next to it.”

She and her friend finished their walk, then sat outside on the porch of her Grove Avenue home when they saw Boswell again.

“Approximately an hour or so since we have crossed his path and my friend had gone to leave and this gentleman was coming past my house and he went to the road toward my friend and raised his hand with a knife in his hand,” she said.

The criminal complaint says that’s when Boswell attacked the man with a knife, slashing him between his finger and thumb.

The man was able to get away and Boswell reportedly walked to Stuber Road, close to where his address is listed on the criminal complaint. There, Boswell was disoriented and stumbling according to a man who saw him here.

When the good Samaritan stopped to ask if Boswell was OK, Boswell reportedly threatened him saying, “Do you want to die tonight?”

New Brighton police were able to identify Boswell after viewing surveillance footage from Fischer’s Beverage and Jimmy K’s Bar, tracing him to the crimes.

It’s unclear how or why, but Boswell apparently made it to Downtown Pittsburgh Thursday around 11 p.m. where police say he was intoxicated and violent.

Pittsburgh police say Boswell, who is white, stabbed two Black men along 6th Avenue between Smithfield Street and Coffey Way. The police report says Boswell told officers “I was told to kill all of the Black people… I stabbed those [expletive]. They deserve to die.”

Boswell remains at the Allegheny County Jail with no option for bail. Pittsburgh police have said he’s a threat to the public and have requested Boswell remain in jail until his hearing.

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