Sisters Get in Knife Fight in South Side: Police

A woman came after her sister with a kitchen knife in a South Bethlehem apartment then resisted arrest after police arrived, according to court papers.

Xesenia Vives Martinez, 24, of Philadelphia, kicked the side of a squad car as police tried to put her inside, causing a dent in the door and other damage, police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.

Police responded to a second-floor apartment at 1307 E. Fourth St. at a little after 4 p.m. Thursday on a report of women fighting with knives, according to the affidavit written by arresting Officer Joshua John Schnalzer.

The victim, Martinez’s 23-year-old sister, told police that she disarmed Martinez, threw the knife and a fight followed, the affidavit says. During the fight, Martinez allegedly bit her younger sister in the back, according to Schnalzer, who wrote that he saw a bite mark on the victim’s back.

Martinez was charged with two counts of simple assault and one count each of resisting arrest and institutional vandalism. She was arraigned before on-duty District Judge Nancy Matos-Gonzalez and committed to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bail.