LOVELAND, Colo. — A Loveland tanning salon employee was able to stab the suspect with his own knife to defend herself during an unprovoked attack that left her with life-threatening injuries, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by Denver7 Thursday.
The 21-year-old employee was hit 15 times in the head with a framing hammer during the violent attack that moved throughout the salon, the affidavit states.
According to the document, 20-year-old Kyle Mathew Behrens entered the Endless Summer Tanning Salon and Boutique just after 6:40 p.m. and immediately started striking an employee, who told police she had never met the suspect.
The attack continued into a hallway of the salon and into at least one open room, where Behrens continued to hit the victim with a hammer until “she went limp and acted as if she was going to pass out,” the affidavit reads. Behrens was then seen on security video returning to the front door and trying to secure it shut with a belt and using the hammer to break into several rooms in search of other people inside the business.
Crime
Man charged with attempted homicide after violent attack at Loveland salon
During that time, the employee moved to another open room and barricaded herself inside with a 42-year-old customer who had heard the commotion.
Behrens then allegedly began chopping at the door to that room with a hammer until there was a hole large enough for him to reach through, then took out a knife and started swiping at the two women on the other side of the door, the affidavit reads.
The customer was able to get the hammer and knife away from Behrens, and the employee stabbed him in the arm with the knife to stop the attack, according to the affidavit.
Loveland police officers arrived and took Behrens into custody as he tried to enter the room where the women were barricaded.
The salon employee suffered a brain bleed and multiple bone fractures in her hand in addition to hammer marks on her body.
The customer sustained cuts on her hand from when Behrens was swiping the knife at the women.
Both women had been released from the hospital as of Thursday afternoon, Loveland police told Denver7's Colette Bordelon.
Behrens was treated for injuries before being booked into Larimer County Jail. He faces seven charges, including attempted first- and second-degree murder, first-degree assault with a deadly weapon and first-degree burglary with a deadly weapon. He remains in custody on a $500,000 cash-only bond.
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