BELFAST – The man sought by police for allegedly stabbing a romantic rival in Searsport was captured early Saturday.

Maine State Police reported that Stephen Cummings, 20, of Northport was arrested at 1 a.m., 24 hours after the attack, on Patterson Hill Road in Belfast. He has been charged with elevated aggravated assault, and is being held at the Waldo County Correctional Center in Belfast on $100,000 cash bail.

Cummings had been at large since 1 a.m. Friday, after he broke into a former girlfriend’s apartment in Searsport and stabbed a man there, according to police. He fled on foot after the incident.

Tips from the public led Maine State Police, the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department and Belfast police to a camper behind a home on Belfast’s East Side area where Cummings was hiding. According to police, Cummings was taken into custody without incident.

Police said that early Friday morning Cummings forced his way into the former girlfriend’s residence in the Mariner Woods apartment complex off Mortland Road by pushing in a fan in a first floor window.

Cummings apparently encountered Jason Batista, 25, of Searsport in the apartment. Cummings stabbed Batista in the back, according to police reports. Batista was taken by ambulance to Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast, then transferred to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

According to state police spokesman Stephen McCausland, Batista is expected to recover from the wound.

Cummings will make his first court appearance Tuesday or Wednesday in 5th District Court in Belfast.

Cummings had been arrested July 22 after allegedly smashing windows at the same apartment, the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department reported.