BLOOMINGTON – Investigators with the Bloomington Police Department have continued the investigation into a stabbing that occurred in the early morning hours of January 1, 2023, in an alleyway in the 200 block of South College Avenue with an arrest.
The victim, a 32-year-old man, was able to provide detectives with further details of the event. The victim reported that at approximately 10:00 p.m. on December 31st, he was walking toward a bar in the 200 block of South College Avenue when he encountered the suspect.
The victim reportedly asked the suspect if he could touch his hair, to which the suspect responded by telling him no. However, the victim stated that he touched the suspect’s hair anyway.
The two men then had a brief verbal exchange and the victim stated that he apologized for touching the man’s hair after being told that he could not. The men then went their separate ways and the victim reported that he did not see the man again until a few hours later in the east/west alleyway in the 200 block of South College Avenue.
The victim reported that as he was walking west in the alleyway at approximately 1:20 a.m., he recognized the man approaching him as the man whose hair he had touched a few hours earlier. He said that as the man was walking past him, the man bumped into him and then continued walking.
The victim immediately began feeling pain in his abdomen and lifted his shirt, where he observed a significant wound and realized that he had been stabbed. The victim walked towards College Avenue and asked a bystander to contact 911 for him. The man that called 911 reported to officers that he had seen a man matching the description of the suspect walking east in the alleyway holding a knife just prior to the victim asking for someone to call 911 because he had been stabbed.
Investigators reviewed security camera footage from the area and also from The Atlas Ballroom. The suspect was located on video prior to the stabbing inside The Atlas Ballroom and was immediately identified by name by an employee of the bar as 36-year-old Ryan Johnson of Bloomington.
Johnson was seen on video walking east in the alleyway just prior to the stabbing wearing the same clothing as described by the victim.
On January 7th, investigators were able to locate Johnson in a vehicle near the intersection of Country Club Drive and South Madison Street. Officers stopped the vehicle and Johnson was taken into custody without incident. He was transported to the Bloomington Police Department for an interview, then later to the Monroe County Jail on felony charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery, and battery with a deadly weapon.
