Blood-Covered Man with Meat Cleaver Creates SouthSide Drama, Police Say

There were two acts in a bizarre “play” Wednesday night on SouthSide, both “starring” neighborhood resident James Toy, now in Northampton County Prison, according to court records.

Acts II, it turns out, resembled the famous shower scene in the movie Psycho, except that instead of at a motel, it was set at a house at 518 Fiot St.

According to court records, a 67-year-old woman was taking a shower on the second floor of the house when she heard a loud crashing sound, then someone pounding on the bathroom door.

”I’m in the shower,” she yelled, but the pounding continued.

So she opened the door.

The arrest record says she was confronted by Toy, 54, covered in blood, holding a meat cleaver. He was yelling “call the police.” But unlike Norman Bates in “Psycho,” he did not use his weapon on the woman.

And although she “trembled in fear,” court papers say, she was able to push her way past the man and lock herself in a third-floor bedroom, where another resident of the house at some point was with her.

The records do not say if the woman knows Toy. They also do not say why Toy was bloody and where he got the meat cleaver.

Toy, meanwhile, locked himself in the bathroom, which is where Bethlehem Police Officer Grayson Peacock found him. Toy eventually opened the door and was holding the meat cleaver, according to court records.

Peacock “gave one verbal command to drop the meat cleaver and [Toy] complied,” the officer writes in a criminal complaint.

End of drama for the night.

Act I, according to the complaint, took place about a block away, at 721 Broadway. Peacock heard a report about a man forcing himself into a home screaming “call the police."

Then, according to the complaint:

• A man said he heard knocking on the front door—this was about 10:25 p.m.—so he opened it. Toy entered by pushing the man out of the way.
• The man said Toy was “acting crazy.” He said Toy ripped a shelf off the wall.
• But the man said he fought with Toy and was able to force him out of the house. He saw Toy flee west on Broadway. The man told police he does not know Toy.
• His destination apparently was the Fiot Street home. About 10 minutes after arriving at the Broadway residence, Peacock learned about a man forcing his way inside 518 Fiot and residents locking themselves in a third-floor bedroom.

Toy, of 643 Alaska St., was charged with two counts of criminal trespass and one count of criminal mischief. He was arraigned early Thursday by on-duty District Judge Jackie Taschner of Palmer Township and committed to county prison in lieu of $20,000 bail.