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The Indiana Daily Student

Bloomington man charged for attempted murder, domestic battery

After allegedly threatening his 24-year-old wife with a knife and stabbing her father three times, Bloomington resident Evan McArdle, 19, faces attempted murder, domestic battery, intimidation and criminal confinement charges.

Bloomington police responded to a call for a stabbing at Winslow Court apartments Saturday at 11:07 p.m. before finding three people arguing in a parking lot.

BPD Captain Steve Kellams said the address had a history for domestic violence calls.

"We were familiar with them,” Kellams said.

McArdle’s wife was one of the three people in the parking lot. She told police her husband had hit her, slammed her head into the wall and threatened her to keep her from leaving during an argument.

Before McArdle allegedly took away her phone during the argument, she said she called her father to help her pack up some of her belongings and leave.

When her 48-year-old father arrived, McArdle allegedly held her in a choke-hold with a knife to her throat to keep her from leaving. She told police her father tried to grab her husband before he stabbed the father with a black pocket knife three times — twice on the left side of his torso and once on the right.

McArdle’s wife said the three of them then fell to the floor in a fight during which her father hit McArdle on the head with a wrench in an act that McArdle’s wife told police was in self-defense. 

When McArdle began kicking her father, the wife allegedly picked up the knife McArdle had dropped and stabbed him on the right shoulder with it. The wife told police she feared for her father's life.

McArdle told police he was bleeding from his right shoulder because his wife had stabbed him with his pocket knife, which he had handed to her. He said the wife’s father had also hit him with a car wrench, so he stabbed the father three times in self-defense.

The husband and father were taken to IU Health Bloomington for their injuries. 

McArdle has a history of criminal misdemeanor and felony charges, including theft, auto theft and disorderly conduct involving fighting with others. His wife also filed for a divorce in May, but their final dissolution hearing was canceled Aug. 10, according to online court records.

McArdle was later released from the hospital and taken to Monroe County Jail.

Christine Fernando

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