A police officer in D.C. was stabbed in the face Saturday afternoon while attempting to arrest a woman in Northeast D.C. wanted in two previous assaults on officers.
Two police officers arrived at an apartment building on Mount Olivet Road just north of Gallaudet University to serve two active warrants for simple assault against 28-year-old Tanesha Davis.
According to charging documents filed in D.C. Superior Court, Davis appeared to be acting erratically and at one point got into the bathtub and refused to come out when officers told her she needed to come with them for help. When officers grabbed her arms to pull her out of the tub, she “began to swing punches” at one of the officers with a knife in her hand, striking him in the shoulder and face area.
The other officer wrestled the knife out of her hands and held her wrists until she could be handcuffed, according to the documents.
The officer who was stabbed, was bleeding from the face and nose, but police told WTOP his injuries appeared to be minor.
Later, when the officers were attempting to seat belt Davis into the police car, she spat on one of the officers, according to charging documents.
Davis is being held without bond, according to online court records, on a felony charge of assaulting an officer while armed with a knife.
Court records show Davis is facing two other assault cases involving police officers.
In an earlier incident, on Sept. 6, police said Davis was arguing with a man near the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro entrance shortly before 1 a.m. when she pulled out a knife and threatened to stab him. When officers showed up, she threw a brick at the man and headbutted and spat on the officer, according to charging documents in that case.
In that case, she was charged with misdemeanor counts of simple assault, threats to do bodily harm and assault on a police officer.
A bench warrant was issued in that when she failed to appear in court on Oct. 12, according to online court records.
Last summer, Davis was arrested after officers were called to an apartment complex on Michigan Avenue in Northeast D.C. by a D.C. Department of Behavioral Health employee who said Davis appeared to be experiencing a mental health crisis.
In that incident, she bit an officer hard enough to draw blood, according to court documents. After she was taken to MedStar Hospital Center for an evaluation, while shackled, she kicked an officer in the right eye, causing the metal shackle “to split (the officer’s) eye open and cause a serious bleeding laceration,” according to the charging documents.
In that case, online court records indicate she was charged with misdemeanor assault on a police officer and offered a deferred prosecution agreement.
The officer is conscious and receiving medical treatment, according to D.C. police. A bench warrant was issued in that case on Dec. 12.
Approximate location of Saturday’s stabbing incident:
