Police say the suspect and victim had no prior connection before the midday attack outside a Harris Teeter in Cotswold.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina woman accused of stabbing a pregnant mother in the parking lot of a south Charlotte grocery store was arrested in Florida nearly two weeks later, after investigators said the attack happened in broad daylight while the victim was with her 3-year-old child.

Police have described the March 18 stabbing outside the Harris Teeter in Cotswold as a random act. Investigators say the victim, 38, did not know the suspect, Marvina Butler-Hardy, and had no prior interactions with her. The case now spans two states, with Butler-Hardy being held in Flagler County, Florida, while Charlotte-Mecklenburg police prepare to bring her back to Mecklenburg County on charges that include assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury and battery of an unborn child.

The case began shortly before 11:30 a.m. on March 18 at the Harris Teeter on Sharon Amity Road in the Cotswold area. Detectives say the victim was in the parking lot with her toddler when she was attacked. The woman later told local television reporters she had been getting her son out of the car when the suspect came at her with what she described as a steak knife. The victim said the blade struck her in the middle of the chest and hit bone, missing major organs. Officers who reached the shopping center found her wounded but alive, and police later said her injuries were not life-threatening. Her unborn child was not harmed. In the first public account from police, Detective Ashley Phillips said the victim and suspect did not know each other, a detail that quickly shaped the investigation because it left detectives without an obvious personal motive to follow.

As police worked the scene, bystanders called 911 and employees moved in to help before medics arrived. One caller said, “We need medic pronto,” while another told dispatchers that someone had just been stabbed after getting out of a car. Those calls, released after the arrest, captured the confusion of a late-morning attack in a busy shopping center. Detectives later said surveillance video showed a woman leaving the Harris Teeter store and then stabbing the victim in the parking lot. CMPD released that video publicly on March 26, asking for help identifying the woman and a vehicle connected to the case. WCCB reported that the suspect was seen inside the store before the attack. At that stage, police would say little about motive beyond repeating that the assault appeared unprovoked. What remains unknown is why the victim was singled out, whether the suspect had been watching her, and what, if anything, led up to the moment prosecutors say the knife was used.

The break came on March 31, when authorities announced Butler-Hardy had been found in Florida. WSOC reported that a Florida Highway Patrol trooper in Flagler County was patrolling Interstate 95 after a “Be On The Lookout” alert for a silver Hyundai traveling south from the Jacksonville area. The vehicle was described as having a paper tag and a taped-up window. The trooper stopped a silver Hyundai after noticing a large windshield crack that obstructed the driver’s view. According to reporting based on court records and an arrest report, the driver handed over a North Carolina identification card instead of a driver’s license and said her license was suspended. Another trooper checked the name and matched it to the Mecklenburg County warrant. Police later said a North Carolina paper tag was found lying on the rear seat and tape appeared to have been peeled from the rear window. Charlotte police said the arrest also involved help from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and Florida agencies.

With the suspect in custody, the case moved from identification to prosecution. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Butler-Hardy, who was identified by local outlets as a Waxhaw woman, would be extradited to Mecklenburg County. The announced charges are serious felonies built around the use of a knife against a pregnant victim. Authorities have not said in public filings, at least in the reporting now available, whether more charges could be added after extradition or after prosecutors complete a fuller review of the evidence. Local outlets also reported that Butler-Hardy has an extensive criminal history, including prior assault-related charges and other offenses in Mecklenburg County. Even so, the present case will turn on the evidence tied to March 18: surveillance images, witness statements, 911 audio, medical records and whatever investigators can recover about the suspect’s movements before and after the attack. No public court date had been set in Mecklenburg County at the time of the latest reports.

The attack also left a mark on people who were not physically hurt but were close enough to absorb the shock. Sarah Click, who works in the shopping center, told local media that hearing co-workers talk about the scene and seeing the police response left her rattled. She said the thought of someone coming at a person that way felt “like a horror film.” The victim, speaking after learning of the Florida arrest, said the news brought relief because the suspect was no longer free to hurt someone else or come after her again. She also said she expected to be left with a scar. Those two reactions, one from a witness to the aftermath and one from the woman at the center of the case, show how the story has unfolded in Charlotte: first as a burst of fear in a familiar parking lot, then as a long wait for an arrest, and now as a criminal case that still does not answer the most basic question of all.

For now, Butler-Hardy remains jailed in Flagler County awaiting transfer to North Carolina, and the next major milestone is her extradition to Mecklenburg County for a first court appearance on the stabbing charges.

Author note: Last updated April 21, 2026.