ST. CROIX — A woman is facing attempted murder charges after police, following the sound of screaming, stumble upon a gruesome scene in a Mount Welcome residence.
When the 911 call came in about 2:13 a.m. on April 4, emergency responders could hear a commotion, according to the police report. Sent to investigate what sounded like a fight between a male and female, police drove around Eliza’s Retreat in Christiansted trying to find the house the call came from. They heard screaming from one address, which became louder and more distinct as patrol units approached the rear of the multi-family home. Officers soon perceived the screams were coming from children.
According to police, the first officer that peeped through a window near the front door saw what appeared to be blood, “spattered everywhere throughout the apartment.” Police knocked on the locked front door, identified themselves, and asked the children to let them in. A female voice could reportedly be heard telling the children not to do it, and the officers then spotted a woman underneath an overturned sofa, pulling children towards her.
According to court documents, a neighbor gave the police a key. When officers entered the apartment, the woman reportedly ran out from under the couch and demonstrated that she was unarmed. Police noticed that she was bleeding profusely from a laceration on her hand. The place was in complete disarray. Items – some broken – were scattered across the floor. Blood was spattered and smudged everywhere; on the living room floor, on the flipped couch, on the walls near the living room, on the bedroom door. The three children were unharmed, and they were taken away by a relative.
In the kitchen, police found more blood on the walls. Officers say the fridge was knocked over, a cabinet drawer completely pulled out, and a candle holder on the counter covered with blood. They called out for the male whose voice had been heard on the 911 call, and received a call for help from the bedroom. “I’m bleeding out,” the man reportedly said. Officers found him lying on the bed, bleeding from the face and neck. The dresser mirror had been shattered. “There was blood on the floor in about every area of the apartment: from the living room, the kitchen, the bedroom, and the bathroom,” the investigating officer wrote.
Both adults were transported to the Juan F. Luis Hospital for treatment. The man had sustained lacerations on his neck, left cheek, and right thumb. The laceration to his left ear had severed part of the earlobe, police observed. Despite being in considerable pain, he agreed to speak to police about what had happened.
The injured man told officers that he had been friends with Tiniqua Knowles for 20 years. The relationship had always been platonic, he said. Earlier that night, she had asked if she could come to his apartment with her children, because she felt uncomfortable at her home. Indeed, officers note that Ms. Knowles had called police earlier that evening to report a disturbance, eventually asking them to drop her and her children at the gas station.
Continuing to recount his version of events, the man told police that he sent his cousin to pick up the woman and bring her and the children to his house. When they arrived, Ms. Knowles reportedly asked for the key to the deadbolt and locked it, repeatedly telling her friend that she was being stalked.
The man, confined to a wheelchair due to a neurological condition, says he went to make something to eat for Ms. Knowles and the children. She reportedly followed him into the kitchen and stabbed him with a knife. His injuries, the man told police, came from raising his arms to defend himself. Ms. Knowles also hit him in the face with an item, he told officers, which caused additional injuries. Despite his wheelchair making it difficult for him to escape, the man said that he was able at one point to gain control of the knife, and stabbed Ms. Knowles several times in the leg.
When police saw her in the hospital, they observed that she had sustained a deep laceration on her right hand and at least three on her leg. She reportedly declined to provide a statement there, saying she did not feel safe or comfortable. She would do so at the station, Ms. Knowles reportedly told officers. She was thus taken to the Wilbur H. Francis Command Police Station to provide her statement.
Upon her arrival, Ms. Knowles reportedly accused one of the police officers who escorted her of being the cousin of the man she allegedly assaulted in his kitchen. She was reassured that that was not the case. Upon being read her Miranda Rights, Ms. Knowles reportedly began to balk again at the idea of giving a statement. When she learned that she would be arrested, police say Ms. Knowles accused her longtime friend of rape. Despite this, she continued to decline to offer an official statement.
Ms. Knowles was once again transported to hospital. Over her objections, the ambulance was summoned so she could receive treatment for her hand, which had not stopped bleeding. Officers say that she also suffered several episodes of what appeared to be seizures while being attended to by EMTs.
Investigating officers who visited the children were rebuffed by relatives, who first insisted that a Victim Advocate be present when statements were taken, before denying police access to the children altogether.
The next day, Ms. Knowles again came to the police station, after previously informing officers that she would be ready to provide a statement. However, Ms. Knowles once again accused an officer present of being related to the man she is accused of violently assaulting. Ultimately she again declined to provide a statement, and was arrested. After another trip to the hospital for treatment for another apparent seizure, Ms. Knowles was booked on charges of attempted murder, first-degree assault, third-degree assault, and carrying or using a dangerous weapon. She was remanded into custody with bail set at $100,000.
The advice of rights hearing set for April 7 did take place as scheduled, according to public court records, however the orders as to bail and other conditions of release have not yet been made public as of press time.
British Caribbean News