Butler County man accused of roadside stabbing in Mercer County
After a standoff with state police at his home, a Slippery Rock Township man was arrested Tuesday on charges accusing him of a road-rage-fueled stabbing in Pine Township, Mercer County.
As of Wednesday, Varick W. Vanistendael, 46, remains in Mercer County Prison on $100,000 bond set at his arraignment Tuesday afternoon by District Judge Daniel W. Davis.
Vanistendael is charged with felony counts of aggravated assault and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, as well as misdemeanor reckless endangerment.
State police spotted Vanistendael’s vehicle at his home on Smith Valley Road when they arrived around 3 p.m. Tuesday, according to a search warrant approved by District Judge Joseph Nash.
“He wasn’t answering commands to come out,” said the investigating Trooper Joseph Snyder on Wednesday. “At that point, we established a perimeter.”
The Western Pennsylvania State Police Special Emergency Response Team assisted at the scene which was active for almost nine hours until Vanistendael exited his home around noon.
According to Snyder, who is a trooper with the Mercer County barracks, none of Vanistendael’s charges were related to the standoff.
“He came out willingly and was taken into custody without incident,“ Snyder said.
According to charging documents, Mercer County 911 dispatchers sent Grove City police to a home in the borough for a potential stabbing victim. Police said the victim’s girlfriend had called 911 after the man arrived home with apparent injuries.
Police said the injured man was taken to Grove City Hospital, where he was stabilized. He was then flown to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he arrived in critical condition, according to authorities.
“He is expected to survive,” said Snyder on Wednesday.
According to the affidavit, Grove City police handed the investigation over to state police, and Snyder and other troopers interviewed the stabbed man in an emergency room of the Pittsburgh hospital, where he had undergone emergency surgery.
“(The injured man) had been stabbed three times, once in the left abdomen and twice in the lower left back,” said Snyder in the affidavit.
According to Snyder, the Grove City man knew Vanistendael before the attack. The man told police Vanistendael was his father’s former friend, but the three of them had “a falling out.”
Snyder said the Grove City man was on his way home from work when he saw Vanistendael in the Sheetz parking lot in Pine Township, Mercer County.
The man told police he and Vanistendael left the parking lot at the same time, and his vehicle was traveling behind Vanistendael.
“As they approached Grove City Pools, Vanistendael abruptly stopped his vehicle in the middle of the roadway, causing (the Grove City man) to stop behind him,” Snyder said.
According to Snyder, both men were exiting their vehicle, but Vanistendael had done so first and approached the Grove City man.
“Without saying a word, (the Grove City man) said Vanistendael stabbed him with a knife several times,” said Snyder in the affidavit. “(The stabbed man) then returned to his vehicle as Vanistendael returned to his and sped off.”
According to the investigating trooper, the injured man drove straight home, where his girlfriend immediately called for help.
According to a search warrant, a witness was in Vanistendael’s vehicle when the stabbing occurred, although they only claimed to see Vanistendael “engaged in an altercation” with another person they did not know.
“Vanistendael then got back into the vehicle and traveled home with the witness,” police said in the warrant. “Upon arriving home, Vanistendael told the witness that the police might be coming to look for him.”
Vanistendael is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing May 18 before District Judge Douglas Straub in Mercer County.
