(PATERSON, N.J.) -- As the search continued Sunday for a relative accused of stabbing a 4-year-old girl multiple times at the child's New Jersey home, the father of the young victim said she's fighting for her life and the attack left him "dumbfounded."
The child remains in stable condition at Saint Joseph's University Medical Center, where she is being treated for puncture wounds to her lung and liver and an injured diaphragm, according to her family.
"She couldn't respond because she had tubes and everything down her, but she opened her eyes and when she heard my voice she started making eye contact trying to see me. That brought joy to me that she was responsive," the girl's father, Faherem LaSane, told ABC New York station WABC outside the hospital on Saturday afternoon.
LaShane said his daughter's name is Amber, and described her as a happy girl with a big smile and an appetite to match.
The stabbing unfolded just after 4 p.m. on Friday in Paterson, New Jersey, according to the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office. Officers were called to the home for a domestic dispute and found the child stabbed multiple times, prosecutors said.
Police did not immediately identify the suspect, but Paterson council member Luis Velez told WABC that police are looking for the child's aunt in connection with the incident.
The aunt was babysitting Amber while the girl's mother was at the home caring for another child, relatives said.
Neighbor Keema James said she saw the mother emerge from the home holding the child, both covered in blood.
"She had a big gash on her forehead and she had her wrapped up," James said of the victim in an interview with WABC.
LaShan said he was stunned when he received word of the stabbing and immediately rushed to the hospital to be at his daughter's side.
“I was totally dumbfounded, and I was shocked because I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to believe it at all," LaShan said.
A motive for the stabbing remains under investigation.
The Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office asked anyone with information about the incident to contact its office.