Cape police say man assaulted, kidnapped girlfriend

A Cape Girardeau man assaulted his girlfriend with a knife before holding her and two children captive early Thursday, police said.

The Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on Thursday charged Darius I.L. Love, 28, with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree domestic assault, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon.

The victim began to text a woman who later alerted police shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday, telling her first “he here,” telling her to “call 911” and to have police not use lights or sirens, according to a probable-cause statement filed in the case by patrolman Josh Gregory.

The victim repeatedly asked the witness to call police, telling her she could not do so herself because she was bleeding badly, Gregory wrote.

The victim said Love caught her outside her apartment in the 800 block of Good Hope Street, she was a “hostage,” and Love would stab her if he saw police, Gregory wrote.

Police went to the victim’s apartment at 1:23 a.m. after receiving reports of a domestic assault, but no one answered when officers tried to contact the residents, Gregory wrote.

Officers returned to the residence after speaking with the witness at police headquarters and forced their way in when nobody answered the door, Gregory wrote.

Officers found Love on a bed with the victim and two children and arrested him, according to the statement.

The victim told police Love punched her in the back of the head, brandished a knife and threatened to stab her before punching her in the left ear and taking her cellphone, Gregory wrote.

She said Love told another person over the phone he planned to “put [the victim] through the pain she has put me through” and told her once she was dead, the children would live with his mother, Gregory wrote.

The victim told officers she heard Love tell another person on the phone he did not intend to be taken into custody, and if police were going to have him “taken out,” he would take the victim with him, according to the statement.

Love admitted to fighting the victim but denied wielding a knife, taking her phone and holding her against her will, Gregory wrote.

He said he “may have scratched her ear with his fingernail,” but officers found the victim with a deep cut to her left ear and injuries consistent with having been punched, Gregory wrote.

Police also found a knife matching the victim’s description, a pile of blood-soiled clothing and blood-spatter evidence “throughout the bedroom and also located on the children which were in bed with Love and [the victim],” according to the statement.

Love’s bond was set at $150,000 with the conditions he have no contact with the victim and stay at least 500 feet from her residence and workplace.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627

Pertinent address:

800 block of Good Hope Street, Cape Girardeau, Mo.