A 62-year-old man had been stabbed 10 times and was bleeding profusely when he called 911 Friday morning.
“I just got stabbed by my roommate 10 times,” the victim desperately screamed to the dispatcher. “I am laying on the ground! I am bleeding like a son of a !”
Longmont police quickly responded as a 36-year-old man made a getaway on a bicycle wearing camouflage shorts, said Cmdr. Jeff Satur of the Longmont police.
Timothy James O’Connor was arrested at 7 p.m. for investigation of attempted second-degree murder, aggravated robbery and first-degree assault after police received a tip, Satur said. He is being held in the Boulder County Jail on a $500,000 bond.
The victim, Tom Bever, was stabbed in the shoulder, back, chest and face, he said. He was seriously injured but his condition has since improved.
A confrontation that led to the assault was apparently sparked when Bever gave O’Connor an eviction notice. Bever met the man at a homeless shelter about 18 months earlier and offered him a place to stay, Satur said.
The two men argued before O’Connor allegedly pulled out a military-style knife with a blade he described as being between 12 and 18 inches long.
Bever made it outside of his house at 1821 Tyler Ave. as O’Connor allegedly continued to stab him. Bever ran to a neighbor’s house, where O’Connor pushed him into a bush.
Neighbor Kenny Beecher was in his computer room in is home at about 6 a.m. when he heard yelling out front, according to a report in the Longmont Times-Call.
He walked outside and saw the two men fighting in the yard. Beecher yelled at them, which apparently made them stop, according to the newspaper report.
They separated, O’Connor jumped on his bicycle and yelled “I love you” as he was riding away, Satur said.
Bever then called 911.
“Which way did he go?” the 911 dispatcher asked.
“I don’t know, I’m laying on the ground. I got stabbed!” Bever said. “I’m going to die.”
Satur said O’Connor allegedly stole $135 from Bever.
SWAT team members and numerous police officers searched homeless hangouts, along rivers, on bike trails and at homeless shelters for O’Connor in an intensive search that went into the evening.
Someone who may have seen or read news reports on the assault called police, who went to an apartment at 319 National Place and arrested O’Connor without incident.
Satur said O’Connor may have dumped the knife and his wallet in a trash bin and asked people to check their garbage for the items. If they see a bloody knife they should not pick it up, however, he said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
