Whitehouse Man Held in Stabbing

WHITEHOUSE — An East Texas man is behind bars after allegedly stabbing an another person. According to KETK, the Whitehouse Police Department says officers were dispatched to a home on Landon Drive on reports that someone at the residence was being threatened. Police say the caller had been threatened over the phone by her estranged husband, Joseph Lee Bryant, 52, of Whitehouse. Bryant allegedly stated he was “going to come over to the house and kill everyone there.” While en route, officers were told Bryant was at the residence and had stabbed one person, identified as Bobby Ray Culpepper, 45, also of Whitehouse.

When police arrived on scene, they saw Culpepper had a visible stab wound on the right side of his abdomen. Culpepper said he was in the garage when he saw Bryant, and that the suspect then approached him and stabbed him with a pocket knife. After the stabbing, police say Bryant attempted to run away, but was located by Whitehouse officers in the backyard of the residence. When asked what happened, police say Bryant stated he “came over to the residence and saw Culpepper in the garage and stabbed him with his knife.” Officers reportedly found the knife in Bryant’s front pocket.

Bryant was arrested and booked into the Smith County Jail on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Culpepper was taken to a local hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries.