A Selah man accused of stabbing his former girlfriend repeatedly at a Selah convenience store remains in the Yakima County jail.
Yakima County Superior Court Judge Jared Boswell set Allen Bernard Thomas’ bail at $500,000 and ordered him held on suspicion of first-degree assault and attempted second-degree murder during a hearing Thursday in a basement courtroom at the Yakima County jail.
Thomas, 33, is accused of stabbing the 30-year-old woman at the Selah Mini Mart, 103 S. First St., on Oct. 31. Thomas and the woman had been in a dating relationship and have a child together, according to a Selah police probable cause affidavit.
Selah officers went to the store around 4:40 p.m. to investigate an assault with a weapon. Officers found the woman sitting on the floor behind the store’s counter holding a rag to the right side of her neck and face, wearing blood-covered clothing, with blood on the floor, the affidavit said.
“Am I going to die?” the woman asked officers, the affidavit said. “Please don’t let me die.”
She had wounds to her upper chest and chin, neck and face, the affidavit said. She told officers that Thomas attacked her.
She was taken first to MultiCare Yakima Memorial Hospital and then transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she was in satisfactory condition Friday afternoon, according to a hospital spokesperson.
A witness at the store told police he saw a man standing behind the counter making motions toward the woman that looked like he was stabbing her. The witness tried to defuse the situation and, when he stepped behind the counter to help the woman, Thomas lept over the counter and ran out the store’s front door, the affidavit said.
Security video from the store showed the woman arguing with Thomas and telling him to leave, and Thomas coming behind the counter and asking to hug her, the affidavit said. When she refused and told him to leave again, he continued to advance toward her and began stabbing her with a knife he pulled out of his pocket.
Yakima police were asked to bring in a patrol dog to help search for Thomas, while sheriff’s deputies were called in to establish a perimeter. The dog led officers to the 100 block of East Second Avenue in Selah, where Thomas was stabbing himself, the affidavit said.
Officers used a “less-lethal” 40mm projectile launcher to subdue Thomas, who was then taken to Memorial for treatment of his wounds before he was booked into jail.
Thomas was on a suicide watch at the jail, missing a Wednesday court hearing due to medical issues and appearing in court Thursday by Zoom from his cell.
Thomas has prior convictions for residential burglary and second-degree theft from 2012.
Access the suicide and crisis lifeline by calling 988 or go to 988lifeline.org for help.
Source: www.yakimaherald.com
