Ax Wielding St. Cloud Woman Charged With Assault for Alleged Attack Saturday Morning

(KNSI) — A 53-year-old St. Cloud woman accused of trying to attack two people with an ax has been charged in Stearns County district court.

According to the criminal complaint, police were called to a home on the 400 block of 8th Avenue South for an “ongoing assault” just before 11:30 Saturday morning. A man at the scene told police Shelley Lynne Goff lives across the street from him and just tried to hit him with an ax. He said he was up on a ladder when Goff came over and hit a hook that was holding a lead line for his dog’s leash, causing the line to break and fall out of the tree. He said she turned her attention to him and swung the ax. He said he thought she would hit him, so he jumped off the ladder to get away. He told police Goff then started chopping at his tree, telling him his house was hers and he needed to get off her property.

A woman at the scene told police he saw Goff with the ax and thought she was working in her yard, but said Goff began incoherently screaming at her and started running toward her with the ax raised over her head. When she was about eight feet away, the woman said Goff turned and walked away.

Another man at the scene said he did not witness the beginning of the incident but said Goff started to threaten his wife with the ax. He said Goff looked at him while holding the ax, but he said he wasn’t afraid of her and was confident he would escape on his bike before Goff could hit him.

The criminal complaint says police saw Goff standing on her porch holding a long wooden handled ax. Police told her to put it down, and when she refused to comply, officers deployed a taser, but they said it was unsuccessful, and she ran to her house, barricading herself inside.

Once inside, Goff could allegedly be heard screaming and breaking things. Most of the things Goff said were “incomprehensible,” according to police, but one officer said they did hear her say, “Hey bitch how does it feel to kill your sister with an axe?” Officers obtained a search warrant, and once in the home, they say they saw the wooden handled ax she allegedly used in the initial incident, along with numerous bats, crossbows, and another ax was found in the garage.

Officers say Goff was in an upstairs bedroom, and when they tried to come in to arrest her, she allegedly broke a window with a bat to try and escape. She was taken into custody and booked into the Stearns County jail. She has been charged with two counts of second-degree felony assault.

She is due back in court Tuesday morning.

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