Daytona Beach police: Teenage stabbing suspect dies while being taken into custody

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - A 16-year-old wanted for allegedly stabbing a teenage girl multiple times died after suffering a medical episode while being taken into custody, police said Friday. 

The boy died at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando early Wednesday morning, just hours after officers found him in the backyard of a home on Continental Drive in Daytona Beach.

According to Daytona Beach police, on May 24, officers were called to a home on Imperial Drive about a reported stabbing. Officers say they found a 17-year-old female victim with multiple stab wounds on her body, including her arms, legs and head. She was taken to the hospital where she is in stable condition.

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Investigators believe the suspect and the victim knew one another, but the exact motive for the attack remains unclear. 

A K-9 team eventually tracked down the 16-year-old suspect lying face-down on the ground in the backyard of a home. 

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While taking him into custody, police say paramedics were called to evaluate the boy after Police Chief Jakari Young said the boy appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance "which was causing his erratic behavior."

They say he "became unresponsive soon afterward and officers carried him to a front yard along Continental Drive to meet up with those paramedics. He was revived by paramedics before his arrival at HHMC." The boy was then transferred to Arnold Palmer Hospital where he passed away.

The Orange County Medical Examiner’s office will perform an autopsy in order to determine the exact cause of death. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is also involved in this investigation.