Brian Kobs held without bail in Tewksbury Hospital campus stabbing

CORRECTION (Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024, 9:56 a.m.): An earlier version of this story misstated where the alleged stabbing took place.

Brian Kobs stood before a judge inside Lowell District Court on Tuesday, less than a week after he was arrested for stabbing a patient at the Tewksbury Hospital campus.

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Police began an over 12-hour search for the 39-year-old last Thursday immediately after the alleged stabbing.

At the time of the assault, prosecutors said Kobs was staying at the Lowell House Recovery Home on the Tewksbury Hospital campus. In court Tuesday, prosecutors shared testimony from the victim, who said he had been staying in the same room as Kobs at the time of the assault.

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The victim said the assault was "unprovoked, and that following a verbal dispute, Kobs lunged at him with what appeared to be a pocket knife, striking him several times in the head and neck. The victim lost consciousness before getting up to approach a nurse for help. Kobs then fled the hospital, prompting the police search.

Kobs was found and taken into custody in Tewksbury on Friday morning, police said. He was found in a shed behind a home on Chandler Street, across the street from Tewksbury Hospital, the state-run mental health facility where the stabbing happened around 7 p.m. Thursday.

"As soon as the police pulled in, I said 'What's going on?' They were out there with guns drawn," neighbor Phil Wyatt said at the time.

It was Wyatt's shed where Kobs was found. He said he knew the search was going on, but never imagined it would end in his backyard.

"They followed the footprints over right through my backyard – footprints in the snow."

Phil Wyatt knew police were searching for a man accused of a stabbing at Tewksbury Hospital, but when he saw officers in his backyard with their guns drawn, he realized they'd tracked that man to his shed.

Tewksbury police said Kobs was taken to the hospital after his capture. When he was released, police said he punched a police officer in the eye.

Kobs faces charges of attempted murder, breaking and entering, drug possession, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a police officer, threatening to commit a crime and assault with a dangerous weapon. He also had two outstanding warrants for unrelated cases, according to police.

He is being held without bail until his dangerousness hearing on Friday.