Crime & Safety

Wanted Man Stabbed Girlfriend's Head With Steak Knife: Cops

The police are searching for a Lockport man who allegedly stabbed his girlfriend in the head with a steak knife.

By Joseph Hosey

A Lockport man is on the loose after stabbing his live-in lover in the head with a steak knife during an argument over money, police said.

The law is looking for Daniel Bandemer, 33, in connection with the alleged Tuesday morning attack on his 35-year-old girlfriend.

Police found the bleeding woman in her South Jefferson Street home after receiving 911 calls about 11:30 a.m. The wounded woman made one of the emergency calls, said Lockport police Sgt. Ron Huff. According to a protective order the woman obtained against Bandemer in October 2010, she and Bandemer have a young son together and she also has a daughter. It was not clear whether the children were home at the time.

Bandemer and his girlfriend had argued over money Tuesday morning, Huff said. The dispute escalated and turned violent when Bandemer hit and kicked the woman, Huff said, and then stabbed her in the back of the head with a steak knife. Bandemer also grabbed a phone away from the woman and broke it when she tried to call the police, according to court papers.

The woman passed out after Bandemer allegedly stuck the knife in her head but called 911—apparently from a different, unbroken phone—after she came to. Bandemer had taken off before officers arrived. Huff asked anyone who knows where he went to call the police at 815-838-2131.

The Lockport police secured charges of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated domestic battery, aggravated battery and interfering with the reporting of domestic battery against Bandemer Wednesday.

The alleged knife attack would not be the first violent episode Bandemer perpetrated against his girlfriend. He pleaded guilty in July 2010 to a charge of aggravated unlawful restraint in connection with an incident in March of that year.

That charge stemmed from Bandemer holding a knife to the woman's throat and forcing her to drive him around. He was sentenced to two years probation.

In her petition for the protective order, the girlfriend claimed Bandemer threatened to tie her to her bed and set her house on fire. She also said he spoke of killing her children and accused him of breaking her eardrum in 2005.

"He says he loves that I fear him because he is God and always threatens to kill," the woman wrote in her petition.

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