Court documents charging a man with attempted murder in a Labor Day stabbing in Grand Forks provide a harrowing account of a stranger knocking on a door before attacking and stabbing a pregnant woman and struggling with her boyfriend.
Jordan Michael Parisien, 29, was charged with two counts of attempted murder, a Class A felony, Thursday in Northeast Central District Court. He will make an initial appearance on the charges Friday afternoon.
Charging documents state the victim, Amelia Idalski, heard a knock on the door of her second-floor apartment at 4265 Fifth Ave. N., about 10 a.m. Monday. When she opened the door, a man she believed was Hispanic or Native American was standing there with a knife. She told police she made eye contact with the man, who then lunged into her apartment, swung his knife at her in a downward motion and plunged it into her right shoulder.
As she fell back into the apartment, the man pressed forward and continued to stab and swing a blade at her, she told police, including swings toward her stomach.
Her boyfriend, Anthony Gonzalez, told police he was on the balcony smoking a cigarette when he heard a scream. Gonzalez said he ran inside and tackled the man, and the two struggled while Idalski escaped.
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Once his girlfriend had fled, Gonzalez said he ran and jumped off the balcony. He broke his right arm in several places, requiring surgery, police said.
Idalski, who is 18 weeks pregnant, received a stab wound in her right shoulder and clavicle area, a 'through and through" stab wound in her right hand, a cut on her right cheek and other injuries, according to the affidavit.
Gonzalez received a laceration to the back of the head, requiring three staples, broke his arm in the leap and sustained several minor injuries while struggling with the attacker.
The couple both told police they had never seen their assailant before the attack.
But a neighbor living on the third floor directly above the victims told police she had kicked Parisien out of her apartment Monday morning after he began "acting weird."
Police learned the neighbor, Parisien and another man had gone to breakfast at the Flying J truckstop early Monday morning and that he had returned to the apartment. She said he left when she asked him to leave.
An employee at the Loaf 'N Jug convenience store near the apartment complex at 4250 University Ave. called police to say they'd found a pair of blue jeans in a men's room toilet Monday afternoon, according to the affidavit.
Police recovered the blue jeans, which had a silver belt buckle emblazoned with "Born in the USA" and watched a surveillance tape showing a man matching the suspect description enter the Loaf 'N Jug at about 10 a.m. wearing the jeans. The man left a couple minutes later wearing gym shorts.
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Investigators then viewed surveillance of the Flying J and saw the same man in the jeans enter with the upstairs tenant and another man early Monday morning.
Parisien was arrested Tuesday, after another neighbor saw a man climbing a balcony at the apartment complex and entering the unit where Monday's attack took place. The caller said she saw the man wipe the rails and sliding glass door with his shirt sleeves before climbing up and entering the unit of the woman who said she'd gone to breakfast with him the day before.
Parisien was arrested a few blocks away from the apartment Tuesday morning, and the caller identified him as the man she'd seen climbing the balcony.
He was charged with burglary and criminal trespassing for Tuesday's break-ins.
Idalski was recovering in Altru Hospital Tuesday evening when she saw a local news report about the man who had been arrested and called police to say she was "100 percent sure that he is the guy."
In addition to two counts of attempted murder, Parisien has been charged with two Class C felony counts of aggravated assault and one count of Class B felony burglary.
The case is reminiscent of the June 24, 2014, murder of Jose Luis Lopez, who was killed when Delvin Lamont Shaw broke into the apartment unit a floor before the one he intended to kick down and shot Lopez during a struggle.
