Suspect in White Bear Lake Stabbing charged with assault

A suspect accused of stabbing a 20-year-old is being charged with first-degree assault.

According to a criminal complaint out of Ramsey County, 18-year-old Jeffery Thomas Rice is accused of stabbing a 20-year-old man, who is now in critical condition.

The incident began Saturday around 1:51 a.m. when the victim was walking with a 19-year-old woman.

According to the woman he was with, while they were walking, the man yelled at kids who were on their bikes, telling them it was past their bedtime.

After yelling the woman said Rice came out of his house and began to yell at them. The man then walked back towards Rice and met him in the street.

According to the woman, Rice threw the first punch and later saw the man she had been with bleeding from stab wounds.

A second woman interviewed by police, Rice’s sister, said they were both watching TV when they heard yelling and screaming outside.

His sister said Rice went outside to confront some people about the noise, saying her brother was “all over the place” walking to various locations before meeting the 20-year-old.

His sister said they were arguing before getting into a physical altercation, and at some point, her brother stabbed the man with a black pocket knife.

“They were on each other, and there was blood everywhere,” Rice’s sister said, according to the criminal complaint.

Rice’s sister said she told her brother to stop multiple times during the altercation and not to leave after the incident.

However, Rice drove away in his car and was later found by police with blood on his clothes and skin, but was unharmed. Officers recovered a foldable pocket knife in the yard where the confrontation took place.

The man who was stabbed received multiple wounds to his small intestine, colon, left kidney, bladder and spleen. The criminal complaint states emergency room doctors said he could have died from the injuries without fast medical intervention.

In a recorded jail call, Rice spoke with an unidentified party, asking, “Is that dude all right?

Upon being told by the caller that they didn’t think the man was, Rice said his actions were “self-defense,” adding, “I do apologize for doing that, though.”

Rice also claimed the couple outside were drunk and causing a scene, according to the criminal complaint.

Rice faces a maximum sentence of 20 years if convicted of the assault charge; his bail has been set at $100,000.