Indiana University Attack Involved Meat Cleaver

Oct. 29, 2013
A weekend altercation between two Indiana University students that left one with lacerations from a meat cleaver happened after a disagreement involving a woman.

A weekend altercation between two Indiana University students that left one with lacerations from a meat cleaver happened after a disagreement involving a woman.

Zesen Shen, 18, a Wright Quad resident, told police his girlfriend had gone to Indianapolis with friends and was supposed to return at 10 Saturday night. She was late, and he was mad, so he waited for her in his car outside Tulip Tree apartments. At 2 a.m., a white Audi drove up and his girlfriend got out. Shen said he followed the car a short distance, honking his horn, then returned to an apartment at Tulip Tree, located on East 10th Street.

The two men argued during several phone calls, during which Shen said the other man threatened him. The man then returned to the apartment building about 3 a.m. with four others to fight Shen. So Shen got a friend, 21-year-old Kaiyu Luo from apartment 202, to go down with him to confront the group.

On his way out, Shen said, he grabbed a knife, which he described as a meat cleaver.

As the group approached, Shen said, he became afraid. He pulled out the cleaver, and "the crowd stopped advancing," IU Police Department officer Gregory McClure wrote in a probable- cause affidavit filed in Monroe Circuit Court.

Shen said he then ran after the man who had driven his girlfriend back from Indianapolis. "He stated that he did not remember what happened during this short time period," McClure wrote.

Shen said the man got away from him, and that he returned to Tulip Tree after receiving a call from his girlfriend asking him to come back to the apartment, so he did.

According to the 20-year-old injured man, Shen wielded a meat cleaver and Luo displayed a knife during the confrontation. He said he ran away, but that Shen did catch up and cut him with the meat-chopping knife. He was treated at IU Health Bloomington Hospital for three cuts: a 4-inch gash on his lower back and two others, less than one inch in length, on his right shoulder and upper left arm.

Luo told police he was "very intoxicated" that night and does not recall either himself or Shen having knives. All he remembers is going outside to help his friend, then returning to his apartment and going to sleep.

Shen was charged Monday with battery resulting in injury and intimidation, both as Class C felonies, which carry a possible jail term of 2-8 years. Luo is charged with felony intimidation.

Information about their status at IU was not available from university officials on Monday.

Copyright 2013 - Herald-Times, Bloomington, Ind.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

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