Selden woman charged in stabbing, police say

A 22-year-old Selden woman was arrested early Monday after police said she stabbed her 23-year-old friend during a dispute. The injured woman underwent emergency surgery at Stony Brook University Hospital, where she was taken after a responding officer used a combat application tourniquet to stem what police called “excessive blood loss” from her right arm.

Ashley Zervakos, of Magnolia Drive, was arrested at her home, where Suffolk County police said the altercation occurred at about 3 a.m. Monday. She was charged with first-degree assault.

Zervakos faces arraignment Tuesday in First District Court in Central Islip, police said.

Police said the stabbing was reported in a 911 call and that responding officers found the victim, identified as a Manorville woman, bleeding profusely from her wound.

One officer, Kevin Butler, a member of the department’s Medical Crisis Action Team, applied the combat tourniquet to control the bleeding, police said. That helped stabilize the woman for transportation to Stony Brook.

The victim’s condition was not known Tuesday.

The cause of the dispute leading to the stabbing was not immediately known.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”