Police: Spokane man uses machete to nearly chop off woman’s hand during fight

A Spokane man is accused of using a machete to nearly chop off a woman’s hand during a fight in his apartment Wednesday.

Police found the woman after a 911 call at 24 E. Augusta Ave. at about 9:30 p.m. Her arm was almost severed, according to court documents, and officers used a tourniquet on the arm. Responding medics quickly sedated her.

The suspect, Raymond L. Bell, 52, was standing in the hallway of the apartment. He was arrested and could face charges of first-degree assault.

Officers found an unsheathed machete with a 2-foot-long blade on a bed, according to court documents.

The victim was taken to a hospital in Spokane and then airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Police said Bell had invited the victim to his apartment because she had been in an argument with a man outside and the man left.

Bell, the victim and Bell’s girlfriend, who was a witness, started drinking and Bell and the victim began arguing because she was “showing disrespect toward him and their apartment,” according to court documents.

They began to fight and throw items at each other. When the victim ran into a bedroom in Bell’s apartment, he ran after her, the witness said. The witness did not see what happened but saw the victim covered in blood after she followed the two into the bedroom, according to court documents.

Bell was convicted of stabbing a father and son with a knife in 2011 during a fight that started over his girlfriend’s clothes, according to court documents.