Authorities responded to the stabbing at a strip mall on the 11900 block of Ventura Boulevard at 12:10 p.m. A male victim was rushed to a local hospital in unknown condition.
The stabbing occurred outside a dry-cleaning business next to a Trader Joe's grocery store near the intersection of Ventura Blvd. and Laurel Canyon Blvd.
The victim reportedly got out of a gold Lexus and was going to the dry cleaner when a transient woman confronted and stabbed him. The woman then walked away. She was arrested blocks away from the scene.
Police believe the man and woman do not know each other. A motive was not determined.
"We saw a man and woman get into an altercation and the guy just yelled that he had been stabbed, and we saw just a woman walking away from him," said Joel Vargas, who witnessed the incident. "He ended up going into the front of the cleaners building over here and kind of disappeared while the woman just kept walking."
"We're looking at this as a random crime," said LAPD Lt. Alan Hamilton. "He was coming here to the shopping center to go to the dry cleaners. He was approached after he exited his vehicle. Shortly after that conversation, that's when he was attacked."
The victim was able to communicate with police and provide them with details of the suspect. Police say a witness was also able to provide details in the form of cellphone-camera photographs.
The suspect was booked at the North Hollywood division station and charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Police said she was known to law enforcement.
The suspect and the victim were not identified.
Police were searching for the weapon Monday afternoon.
