A man was placed in the Johnson Detention Center this morning pending Attempted Murder charges after an alleged overnight assault on his wife.
Laurens Police responded to Eden Street with blue lights and sirens at 9:04 last night after a man called to say that a neighbor was at his house trying to cut his wife’s throat. Sgt. Michael Gainey arrived to see the man who called at the door, saying “he’s going to kill her.” Sgt. Gainey then observed the woman run out of the house, covered in blood. She was followed by a teenaged boy, also covered in blood. Then the man from next door was reportedly observed coming out of the house with his left hand on the shoulder of a young boy and a knife in his right hand. Sgt. Gainey drew his weapon and ordered the man to let the child go. The man complied, releasing the boy, then dropping his knife and lying on the ground. 58-year-old Preston Shands Jr. of 104 Eden Street was then taken into custody and the crime scene was secured. EMS was called to care for the injured. One of the youth reported his Mom and Step-Dad had been arguing all day. At one point as the mother was in the kitchen near the door to the garage the husband reportedly began to stab her with a fork. The woman reportedly gathered her two sons and ran next door to the neighbor’s house. Mr. Shands reportedly followed, broke a window from the front of the house, then went to the back and broke a window, entered the neighbor’s house and continued to assault his wife. He reportedly got a knife from the neighbor’s kitchen and began to stab his wife with it. The wife was airlifted to Greenville for treatment of her injuries. One of her sons was taken to the Laurens County Memorial Hospital for treatment of a cut to his hand. 58-year-old Preston Shands Jr. of 104 Eden was being held for warrants, expected to charge him with Attempted Murder, Assault and Battery 1st Degree and two counts, Use of a Weapon during Commission of a Violent Crime.