BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A man accused of chasing a woman with a machete outside a Bloomington store was arrested and charged with intimidation.
Court documents show police arrested 43-year-old James P. Barnard on May 10 after an employee at the At Home store on the city’s west side called 911 to report that a woman had just ran in claiming that a man tried to hit her with a machete.
When police arrived at the store’s location on West 3rd Street, they spoke with multiple witnesses. One witness said he saw Barnard yelling at the woman outside the store with a machete in his hand, per court documents. When the woman ran, Barnard chased after her with the machete, the witness told police.
The witness claimed he confronted Barnard, to which Barnard responded by cursing at him and telling him to go away. During this interaction, the woman left and headed toward the parking lot in front of the store, the witness explained.
Police also spoke with the employee who called 911. The employee said the woman ran into the store crying hysterically and asked the employee to call 911 because a man tried to hit her with a machete, court records state. The employee told police she could see Barnard standing outside the store beckoning the woman to return to him. The woman stayed inside store until police arrived.
The woman who ran into the store also spoke with police. She explained that she and Barnard were outside the store at the corner of the property where many of their belongings were lying when she told Barnard that she had just been diagnosed with AIDS, court documents say.
She told police that after hearing the news, Barnard went into a rage, picked up his machete and chopped it into a cooler, which put her in fear.
When asked if Barnard chased her with the machete, the woman claimed he did not. When asked why she ran into the store asking for 911 to be called and claiming that Barnard tried to hit her with the machete, she stated she did not mean to say that to employees, court documents say.
Police tried see if the incident was recorded by security cameras, but employees informed them that they could not see anthing because they did not have cameras covering the specific area of the property where the incident took place.
After his arrest, Barnard was booked into the Monroe County Correctional Center.
