Police: Woman stabs girlfriend in neck after being kicked out of apartment
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indianapolis woman was facing attempted murder and aggravated battery charges after stabbing her girlfriend multiple times at their apartment in Broad Ripple.
News 8 has chosen not to identify the woman stabbed in this incident.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers were called to an apartment building in the 900 block of East 64th Street around 6:18 p.m. Saturday on a report of a stabbing.
When they arrived, they found a woman with multiple stab wounds to her neck and hand. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
A probable cause affadavit released Wednesday says a short time after the stabbing, police found suspect, 34-year-old Taniqwa Heard, exiting a port-a-potty near the complex. She was taken into custody.
Police say after Heard was put in handcuffs, she seemed “excited,” asking, “‘What’s going on, did she die?’” This question came unprompted without officers asking her any questions.
Officers did find a bloody steak knife hidden in Heard’s pantleg, as well as a bloody tank top in the port-a-potty.
Police spoke with four witnesses at the scene who helped the woman who’d been stabbed. Court documents say the witnesses told police that the woman said she’d been stabbed by her girlfriend, Heard, and kept repeating Heard’s month and year of birth – “May 1989.”
Detectives talked with the woman at the hospital, who couldn’t speak due to be intubated. She instead confirmed to officers that Heard had stabbed her by nodding yes.
Heard spoke with police, who claimed she stabbed her girlfriend in self-defense. She told investigators that she’d been staying with her girlfriend at the apartment for two weeks, and while she was showering, her girlfriend went through her phone.
After learning she’d gone through her phone, Heard and her girlfriend started to argue. Heard told police she then packed a bag and left the apartment, but court documents say when she exited the apartment, her girlfriend “attempted to spray mace at her to prevent her from leaving.”
Heard said she then ran back into the apartment, locking herself in. The girlfriend then started “banging on the door and started yelling for someone to call the police.”
After her girlfriend reentered the apartment, Heard said she “grabbed a knife” and stabbed her in “self-defense.” After the stabbing, she fled the scene.
The affadavit says when officers asked Heard why she fled the scene and didn’t wait for police if the incident was in self-defense, she “became very belligerent and refused to answer any further questions.”
On Monday, detectives talked to the girlfriend while in the hospital. She told officers that she and Heard been dating for around two months, and she’d rented the apartment for the two of them.
She told police that tension had been building between them in the recent weeks, and on Saturday, she and Heard argued after she asked Heard about someone she’d been messaging.
The woman said the question came from curiosity, but it wasn’t received that way. Instead, a fight broke out, and she left the apartment briefly to “cool off.” After returning, the fight escalated again, and the woman told Heard to leave.
Heard packed a bag and left, but the woman said she’d realized Heard stole her phone. She followed Heard with a can of mace and demanded for her phone. Heard instead ran back into the apartment and locked her out.
The woman said she started yelling for her neighbor to call the police, and after letting herself back in the apartment, Heard stabbed her multiple times before fleeing.
The woman then left the apartment, calling her husband who’d she’d been separated from to say Heard stabbed her, then was found and helped by a few of the witnesses.
The woman was still in the hospital as of Wednesday.
Heard was being held in the Marion County jail without bond. She was also facing charges of domestic battery with a deadly weapon and intimidation.
A court date was set for Thursday.
Help is available for victims of domestic violence. Below is a list of suggested resources on the Domestic Violence Network website:
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233 or text START to 88788
- National Domestic Violence Hotline en español: 800-799-7233 o texto “START” al 88788
- Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence: 24-hour hotline available at 800-332-7385
- Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking
- La Plaza Indy
- The Julian Center
- Indiana Child Abuse Hotline: 800-800-5556
- National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-4673
