A toddler is fighting for her life after a stranger stabbed her in the face while she was in a stroller at a school bus stop, police said.

Nelson Blanco, 46, allegedly attacked the two-year-old girl in Providence, Rhode Island, around 1.50pm on Wednesday.

Police said the toddler was with her 26-year-old mother as they waited for two siblings to get off the school bus when Blanco approached them, according to the Boston Globe.

The mother crossed the street to get away from Blanco but he followed and started insulting her, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said Thursday at a press conference.

Blanco then allegedly attacked the little girl with the knife, stabbing her in the face multiple times, and knifing her mother in the shoulder.

Neither victim has been named by police, but Perez said Blanco did not know the mother and daughter in the ‘unprovoked’ attack.

Blanco had been accused of stabbing two seven-year-old boys in Providence in 2003 but was found incompetent to stand trial.

Other cases also ended with the same finding and Blanco eventually being released. In 2026, a doctor said Blanco was not a risk to the community, per the outlet.

Nelson Blanco, 46, allegedly stabbed a two-year-old girl in the face several times during an attack at a bus stop in Providence, Rhode Island, on Wednesday

The little girl was in a stroller when she was attacked by Blanco, who has an extensive criminal history, according to Providence police

Perez noted that the little girl allegedly stabbed by Blanco was ‘fighting for her life’ at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, according to the outlet.

The toddler’s mom was allegedly stabbed in the shoulder by Blanco.

However, she has since been treated and released from the hospital to be with her daughter.

Police said Blanco, who has no known address, broke into a nearby home on Daboll Street after being chased off by a bystander.

He ran past a woman in the home’s kitchen, though she was not hurt in the incident, WPRI reported.

Blanco then locked himself in the basement, but police officers eventually broke in and arrested him.

He has been charged with two counts of assault with intent to commit murder, assault with a deadly weapon, breaking and entering into the dwelling of someone over the age of 60, possession of a knife while committing a crime of violence and possession of a knife with a blade longer than three inches.

A bloodied knife was found in a panel box in the basement, according to prosecutors.

Blanco, wearing a hazmat suit and sporting a bandage over one of his hands, appeared in Providence District Court on Thursday. He was ordered to receive a competency evaluation and a dangerousness assessment.

Blanco was ordered to receive a competency evaluation and a dangerousness assessment when he appeared in court on Thursday

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office said Blanco had been found incompetent multiple times in the past

Jesse Alice Palmer, 34, witnessed the alleged attack while waiting for her two children at the bus stop.

‘I couldn’t even see the baby, and the mother was screaming and screaming,’ Palmer told the Boston Globe.

Palmer said that the baby’s stroller was ‘flipped over’ as a result of what happened.

She added that the little girl stopped breathing as she and another woman tended to her, causing them to perform CPR.

‘He should not have been out in the streets,’ Palmer said about Blanco. ‘You failed him, you failed the baby, you failed the kids that got stabbed before.’

Blanco was accused of stabbing two seven-year-olds in September 2003 as they played in Providence.

He would have been 23 years old at the time of that attack, which police said was a ‘senseless and random act of violence.’

The children were taken to Hasbro Children’s Hospital and survived their injuries, which included stab wounds in their upper bodies.

Blanco was arrested and charged but he was found incompetent to stand trial, according to court records viewed by the Globe.

The state’s behavioral health agency found in 2007 that there was ‘no reasonable likelihood that in the foreseeable future’ of Blanco becoming competent, effectively ending the criminal case.

Providence police said Blanco did not know the mother and daughter when he carried out the ‘unprovoked’ stabbings

Blanco was an inpatient at Eleanor Slater Hospital, which is Rhode Island’s state psychiatric hospital, per court documents seen by the outlet.

Blanco was set to remain there until an ‘appropriate alternative placement’ was found.

It was not clear when he was released from the psychiatric.

Psychiatric evaluations from 2003 through 2006 described Blanco as ‘paranoid’ and ‘out of touch with reality,’ WJAR reported. 

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office said Blanco was found incompetent to stand trial again in 2018, according to the Globe.

That happened after he was charged with possession of a stolen vehicle the year prior.

Doctors said that Blanco had an intellectual disability disorder and schizophrenia, per the reported court documents.

Blanco was charged again in 2024, this time with breaking into his sister’s home through a window. However, it was once again determined that Blanco was incompetent for trial.

Blanco’s next court date, which will be a status update on his competency hearing, is scheduled for October 22. A plea has not been entered.

Court records viewed by the Daily Mail said he also had an open domestic violence case in Providence/Bristol County Superior Court.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the Providence Police Department for further comment.

As of Friday, Blanco did not have an attorney listed in Rhode Island 6th Division District Court records viewed by the Daily Mail.