Suspect in Ships Cove stabbing turns himself in to Freetown police

FALL RIVER — A man accused of carrying out a bloody weekend stabbing in a hallway of Ships Cove Apartments has turned himself in.

Patrick Theriault, 22, listed as homeless, turned himself into Freetown Police on Thursday, according to a statement issued by Fall River Police. He was wanted on charges of armed assault to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury.

Fall River District Court Judge Kevin Finnerty issued a warrant for Theriault’s arrest on Sunday, the day after Theriault allegedly stabbed a 37-year-old man in the abdomen, according to court documents.

A witness told police Theriault was hanging out in a Ships Cove apartment Saturday evening when Theriault's girlfriend received a text message from her ex-boyfriend, according to a police report.

Theriault stormed out of the apartment in a “fit of anger,” and said he was going to the victim’s apartment, also in Ships Cove, to “settle things,” the witness told police.

A few minutes later, a witness on the eighth floor of the building woke up to a loud fight in the hallway outside, the report states.

The witness looked through a front door peephole and saw a neighbor and a man, who police later identified as Theriault, arguing loudly in the hallway. The witness turned away to alert the authorities, and upon returning to the door saw the victim staggering around, bloodied and wounded.

Police arrived to a grisly scene on the eighth floor at 11:35 p.m. A trail of blood was visible on tile flooring outside the elevator door, and the victim's bloody shirt was on the ground.

Police followed the bloodstains and found the victim in the hallway fading out of consciousness. The victim had been stabbed in the abdomen, creating a wound six inches long.

He was wounded so severely a portion of his intestines were “coming out of a wound from his abdomen,” the report states. He was taken to Saint Anne’s Hospital for treatment and later transported to Rhode Island Hospital, where as of Monday he was listed in serious condition.

The manager of the apartment building gave officers security camera footage that captured a man, later identified as Theriault, approach the victim outside the eighth-floor elevator. The man began “wildly stab and slash at” the victim with a black knife, the report states.

Theriault returned to the apartment unit he'd been before the attack, “hyped up,” a witness told police, and threw a black knife on a coffee table, changed his clothes and left the building.

Police assigned to the Fall River Major Crimes Unit identified Theriault through security camera footage and witness interviews, according to the report.

Theriault was wanted for four days before he turned himself into authorities in Freetown. He was due to be arraigned in Fall River District Court.