By FRED CONTRADA
fcontrada@repub.com
NORTHAMPTON - A judge ordered a Sunderland man sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for observation Wednesday, after he pleaded innocent to invading a home on Pleasant Street, stabbing one of the occupants and killing a cat.
Keo R. Bun, 25, of 199 Russell St., is charged with home invasion, attempted murder, cruelty to an animal, aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, intimidating a witness and vandalizing with a noxious substance.
According to police, Bun entered the 251 Pleasant St. home of an ex-girlfriend uninvited at about 11 p.m. Tuesday armed with a knife.
He threatened a male resident with the knife and then got into a physical altercation with another resident, stabbing him eight times, police said.
The 31-year-old man suffered wounds to the chest and groin as well as a collapsed lung, according to the report.
When the residents locked themselves in various rooms to escape Bun, he mixed a powder and a liquid he had brought with him, creating "irritating noxious fumes," the report states. Bun then fled the scene.
When police arrived, they found a dead cat with fluid leaking from its mouth. They determined that the substance Bun had spread was toxic and summoned the Regional Hazmat team.
Bun was arrested Wednesday in Easthampton and examined for mental competency by Dr. Wellie Yeh prior to his arraignment in Northampton District Court. After Yeh told Judge W. Michael Goggins that Bun might be suffering from a mental illness, Goggins ordered him held for observation at Bridgewater.
Bun's ex-girlfriend was also in court seeking a restraining order against him, but Goggins continued the request to Jan. 26, when Bun is scheduled to appear in court again. Court documents list Bun's employer as the Salvation Army.
He appeared in court in a blue uniform with name patches on his shirt.