After a Halloween stabbing at a Bloomington party, a teen spent a week in the hospital
A Halloween party in Bloomington turned into a true night of terror for Donovan Stanley.
The blood at this party was real, as was the deep gash on the 19-year-old's left forearm that required three surgeries to repair.
It was about 12:30 a.m. on Oct. 29, witnesses said, when a group of six "college-aged" men who had been denied entry to a large house party in the 400 block of North Dunn Street kicked in a back door, according to a police report. A 19-year-old living there was hosting the party.
One of the intruders was waving around what was described as "a large knife," and proceeded with his friends to a basement living room, where a fight broke out with several party-goers.
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The man with a knife stabbed Stanley, and fled with the people he came in with, according to witness accounts.
2 charged in Bloomington Halloween stabbing
Two 17-year-olds from Bloomington have been charged in connections with the case; several others are being sought.
The first suspect was identified by people who recognized him in a picture posted on the Bloomington Police Department's Facebook page. The photo was removed after police learned he was a juvenile.
He was taken to a juvenile detention center after being charged with burglary and intimidation with a deadly weapon, both felonies, and with battery resulting in injury, a misdemeanor.
Police then located and questioned another 17-year-old they suspect stabbed Stanley, BPD Capt. Ryan Pedigo said.
That teen is charged with three felonies: burglary, aggravated battery and battery with a deadly weapon. He, too, was transported to a juvenile detention center.
Friends raising money for teen's expenses
Jaigh Sanders, an Indiana University student who worked with Stanley at the Carmichael Hotel in Carmel, said she and mutual friends had invited Stanley to Bloomington that weekend hoping to divert him from grief over the recent death of his older brother.
"We had been trying to convince him to come down to Bloomington to get his mind off grieving all the time," Sanders said. "We all feel kind of guilty about encouraging him to come down here, after what's happened. That's why I set up the GoFundMe."
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The online fundraiser can be found at the GoFundMe site by searching for Stanley's name. It's to pay medical bills and living expenses while Stanley can't work at his jobs at the Carmel hotel, at Topgolf in Fishers and doing landscaping. He'll be off a few months, until his arm heals.
He's back home at his Carmel apartment recuperating, after spending a week at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, Sanders said, where she visited him every day.
Stanley was protecting others when he was attacked, using a wooden cutting board to fend off and then hit the attackers, who beat him and swung a knife toward his neck, Sanders said, describing during an interview what Stanley told her.
"Donovan had asked them to leave, but they wouldn't, and when they kept being aggressive, he stepped in between them and his friends," she said.
The knife cut damaged and severed tendons and muscles in his arm when he held it up in a defensive position to protect his neck, Stanley told her.
"It's a good thing he has quick reflexes, or he could be dead now," Sanders said.
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at 812-318-5967 or llane@heraldt.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Two juveniles arrested after stabbing at Bloomington Halloween party
