New York man charged after stabbing truck in Lake Station

A woman said it all started after Ricardo Burnett insulted her when she didn't thank him for opening the door to a Flying J Travel Center Denny's on Ripley Street in Lake Station.

They argued. Her 23-year-old boyfriend tried to intervene.

There was a “fight”.

Burnett, 48, a trucker from Deer Park, New York and Florida, pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed him at least eight times in the chest, abdomen and arms, records show.

He told cops it was “self-defense.”

Burnett was charged Saturday with attempted murder, aggravated battery and battery with a deadly weapon. Court filings show he is in custody. A court hearing was scheduled for Monday.

His next hearing will take place on July 2.

Lake Station police officers responded just after 9 p.m. June 21 to the Flying J Travel Center, 1401 Ripley St. Burnett was handcuffed and put in a police car.

Witnesses said it happened through the back door. The victim was lying on the ground on a walkway outside where a security guard was attempting to treat his injuries. The cops called the paramedics.

Earlier, a janitor and the security guard managed to subdue Burnett and take the knife before the cops arrived.

The victim was transported to St. Mary's Medical Center in Hobart and then airlifted to another hospital. At St. Mary's, he was intubated and too badly injured to talk to the cops. His condition was not immediately known.

His girlfriend, who is from Florida, said she was in northwest Indiana working in trucking and the couple took an Uber to go to Denny's.

Burnett was a complete stranger.

“You don’t have to hold the door,” she replied.

“OK, (expletive),” Burnett replied, pushing his face away.

Burnett left and the woman rummaged inside. When he returned, the two men began arguing.

“Who are you talking to him like that?” » the boyfriend said to Burnett.

They started to fight. She tried to separate them, then security intervened.

“He has a knife, stop,” she said.

In an interview with police, Burnett said he was fueling up while driving through Indiana.

“Wow, I can’t even say thank you,” Burnett told the woman.

“Aww, what are you going to do,” said an uninvolved man standing nearby.

“Aww, you little (expletive),” Burnett told the woman before returning to the pump to check the number to buy gas.

“Hey, don’t ever call me by my name,” the woman told him, according to Burnett as he returned to the station.

The woman insulted her family, they started arguing and another man separated them. The woman “punched him in the face,” Burnett said. He pushed her away and she began punching and kicking him, he told investigators.

Burnett said the woman reached into his pants at one point. Burnett pulled out a pocket knife, opening the blade, before entering the station.

He saw the boyfriend approaching: “Who, who, who?”

“This one,” the woman pointed to Burnett.

Burnett told investigators her boyfriend hit her, they both fell down, then started fighting. The security guard broke it. When asked if he stabbed the victim, Burnett said he didn't know. He was still holding the knife, but was trying to get rid of his boyfriend by “swinging” at him.

“The woman’s attitude was bad” and she was a “(expletive),” he said.

He later clarified that he did not remember whether he had opened the blade.

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