DEL VALLE, Texas — A 35-year-old man was arrested on an aggravated assault charge after allegedly stabbing someone in the throat at a Del Valle bar early Sept. 12, according to an arrest affidavit.
Kyle Ethan Gonzalez is accused of stabbing the man on the back patio of the Waterhole Saloon, 5244 E. State Highway 71, after an argument that began over the victim’s conversation with a woman, the affidavit says. Deputies were called to the bar at about 2:01 a.m.
The victim told deputies he had been singing karaoke when a woman complimented him and he invited her to play pool. Gonzalez then approached and said the woman didn’t want the victim’s phone number, according to the affidavit.
The victim said Gonzalez told him he was “going to kill him,” and when the victim replied that he wasn’t going to kill anyone, Gonzalez pulled out a pocketknife and stabbed him once in the throat.
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Deputies found the victim in a chair in the parking lot with a puncture wound about an inch long on the front of his neck. He was taken to South Austin Medical Center and underwent surgery.
A doctor told a deputy the injury was “very life-threatening” because of swelling that restricted his airway, the affidavit says.
Gonzalez fled on foot, and deputies set up a perimeter. A sheriff’s helicopter crew located him in a field near the bar, and he was taken into custody without incident, the affidavit says.
A search turned up an automatic-style knife with a tan handle and what a deputy believed was blood on the blade.
A friend of Gonzalez told deputies the two work together at SpaceX and were on a team-building outing that night, according to the affidavit. Gonzalez declined to be interviewed by a detective but apologized three times for his actions, the affidavit says.