Kent Police arrested a 17-year-old Kent boy for investigation of first-degree assault in connection with the stabbing of a 30-year-old Auburn man at about 6:56 a.m. Jan. 9 at a convenience store parking lot in the 700 block of Washington Avenue North.

The Auburn man was stabbed at least three times in the shoulder, arm and back, said Kent Police Sgt. Bob Burwell in a phone interview Tuesday. Burwell said paramedics transported the man to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for non-life threatening injuries and that he has since been released from the hospital.

The boy, the girlfriend of the boy and the Auburn man were each at an all-night party at a condominium about a block west of the convenience store. About 10 or so people were at the party. The boy allegedly disrespected others at the party with his comments and they asked him to leave.

The man, who had a nephew at the party, walked to the store to get cigarettes when he saw the Kent boy reportedly hit his girlfriend in the face in the store's parking lot.

The man told the boy he can't hit girls and tried to intervene when he got stabbed, Burwell said.

The man went back to the party and asked them to call 911 for help. Two of the partygoers knew the boy because they attend the same vocational school.

Police tracked down the boy's address and arrested him later in the day Jan. 9 at his East Hill residence. The boy is in custody at the King County Juvenile Detention Center in Seattle.

King County prosecutors are expected to file charges against the boy by the end of the week and might charge him as an adult because he is almost 18, Burwell said.