9/27/2021- 8:30 p.m.
A woman arrested Sunday on suspicion of stabbing a man in Bismarck told authorities she got blood on her hands, shirt and purse when she was cutting bologna, according to a police affidavit.
Amy Bearking, 34, was arrested just after 1 p.m. Police were called to the area of Second Street and Avenue C on a report that a man had been stabbed. The man told police he was walking down the street and a woman stabbed him with a knife.
Bearking fit the description the man gave. Police arrested her north of Avenue B on Third Street. The purse she carried was bloody on the inside and outside and a bloody knife was in plain view, according to authorities.
An injury to her finger had left a trail of blood, police said.
The man who was stabbed, Thomas Bird, 50, was taken to a Bismarck hospital. Doctors told police Bird was stabbed in the bowel and liver and would need surgery, according to the affidavit.
It’s unclear what led to the stabbing. One witness told police he thought the two were going to hug and then they began to scuffle. Bird walked away holding his side.
Bearking walked the other direction and stopped in a yard to wash her hands in a sprinkler, the man told police.
Both Bearking and Bird are homeless, according to authorities.
Bearking made her initial court appearance Monday. She is charged with aggravated assault, which carries the possibility of a five-year prison sentence upon conviction. No attorney is listed for her in court documents.
