Travis Shockley charged with first-degree assault in Duluth stabbing

Travis Lee Anthony Shockley, 38, of Duluth, is charged with first-degree assault after court documents said he stabbed an acquaintance once in the upper chest over trash the man had put in the back of his Lexus, collapsing his lung.

The man Shockley is accused of stabbing is Daniel Zachary Belanger, 39. Belanger walked into the Aspirus St. Luke's emergency room shortly after 10 p.m. on Aug. 13 and told an officer that Shockley had stabbed him, according to court documents described by the Duluth News Tribune, which reported the charges on Sept. 7.

What the complaint alleges

Belanger told police the two men had been hanging out in a friend's garage on the 1000 block of East Third Street when he put some trash in the back of Shockley's Lexus. Shockley allegedly threw the garbage back at him and pulled out a knife. Belanger was stabbed once in the upper chest.

Belanger told officers he punched Shockley several times and that Shockley dropped the knife and ran off, according to the court filings.

First-degree assault is the top count against Shockley and the only one tied to the night of Aug. 13. The court documents say he was upset about Belanger placing trash in his vehicle, and the altercation took place in the East Hillside neighbourhood in August.

Shockley faces two more counts, both from the day officers found him: a felony count of fifth-degree drug possession and a misdemeanor count of fleeing a peace officer by a means other than a motor vehicle.

A walk to the emergency room

Belanger walked to the emergency room himself, covered in blood from the chest wound, according to the complaint. Police were called to Aspirus St. Luke's Hospital at about 10:20 p.m. on Aug. 13, after medical staff reported that a patient had been stabbed.

Belanger identified Shockley to officers as his attacker and told them he knew him. He also said the stabbing had happened near the hospital, which sits about two blocks downhill from the garage.

Court documents describe the two men as acquaintances who were spending the evening in a friend's garage.

Medical staff determined that Belanger had suffered a collapsed lung. They inserted a tube to drain air and blood from his chest cavity before he was admitted to the intensive care unit. The public record goes no further than that admission.

Arrest on a Duluth street

A Duluth police officer spotted Shockley riding a bike on the 100 block of West First Street on Aug. 19 and ordered him to the ground after a short pursuit, the criminal complaint says. Officers found 1.65 grams of a white crystalline substance in his shorts, which field-tested positive for methamphetamine.

The complaint says the bike was an electric one and that Shockley first tried to ride away before he followed the officer's instructions and got onto the ground.

Duluth police arrested Shockley on Aug. 19, six days after the alleged stabbing, and he was charged on Aug. 21.

Shockley is being held on $100,000 bond, according to Law & Crime, which reviewed the complaint.

What the reporting does not settle

Accounts of the complaint give Shockley's age as 38, while the Duluth News Tribune reported it as 39. The garage on the 1000 block of East Third Street is at a home, which is how one account came to place the argument outside a Duluth house.

Where the case stands now

Shockley is charged with three counts and remains in custody. The allegations against him have not been proven in court, and the complaint sets out accusations made by police and by the man identified as the victim. No trial date has been set.

No attorney for Shockley has been named publicly, and he has not entered a plea to any of the three counts.

Shockley's next court appearance is set for Nov. 6. An earlier appearance was listed for Sept. 10.

In the charging documents

Both accounts of the complaint trace the narrative of the stabbing to Belanger. The document records his description of the garage, the trash, the knife and the punches he says he threw, along with what hospital staff found when they treated him.

An officer who found Belanger inside the emergency room recorded his condition in the complaint, along with his statement that Shockley had stabbed him.

covered in blood from his torso to his boots

The public record does not say whether police recovered the knife, whether Shockley was hurt in the fight Belanger described, or whether anyone else was in the garage.

Shockley's three counts come from two dates, six days apart. The assault charge rests on Aug. 13, in a garage on the 1000 block of East Third Street; the drug possession and fleeing counts rest on Aug. 19, on the 100 block of West First Street. Neither report gives the date the charges were filed.