Man Who Stabbed Keansburg Woman at Middletown Bed, Bath and Beyond Escapes from Mental Hospital

Middletown, NJ - A man who tried to kill a woman in the Middletown Bed, Bath & Beyond in 2013 escaped on Saturday from the Trenton psychiatric hospital where he is serving out his sentence.

The gruesome attack happened at about 4 p.m. on Jan. 17, 2013: As Patch reported at the time, Tyrik Haynes, 19, stabbed a 29-year-old Keansburg woman multiple times inside the Bed, Bath & Beyond store on Rt. 35. The Keansburg woman was pushing her 5-month-old baby in a stroller through the store. He stabbed her more than a dozen times, critically injuring her, police said. The Bayshore area was shocked by the crime, and that Patch story alone got 225 comments.

Haynes, who is from Middletown and graduated from Middletown High School North, was charged with attempted murder. On Saturday, he walked out of the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital where he is currently being held. In an email alert sent out by the Ewing, NJ police, they said Haynes should be considered dangerous. He was found by Human Services police and returned to the hospital Sunday afternoon, Ewing police said.

The woman, who was able to call 911 after being stabbed, was rushed by helicopter to Jersey Shore University Medical Center. The attack resulted in both of her lungs being punctured. Haynes was arrested just a month before the Bed, Bath & Beyond attack for allegedly lighting a cat on fire on Christmas Eve, killing it. He torched the animal while it was confined to a carrier.

"It is important to note that psychiatric hospitals are not prisons and that patients do have certain grounds and travel privileges granted by a judge as their behavioral health conditions improve," Nicole Brossoie, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, wrote in an email to the Asbury Park Press.

Patch file photo of Tyrik Haynes.