Staff Report

WARSAW — A dispute between two men and a woman led to last week’s stabbing at a McDonald’s restaurant in Warsaw.

John Edward Robinson, 48, 303 W. Winona Ave., Warsaw, is facing charges of battery with a deadly weapon, a Level 5 felony, and battery, a Class A misdemeanor, from the incident and charges of residential entry, a Level 6 felony, and criminal mischief, a Class B misdemeanor from the related case of his fleeing the scene of the stabbing.

John Edward Robinson

According to probable cause affidavits, on Nov. 7, a Warsaw Police officer responded to the Kosciusko County Justice Building where a man had told security officers he had been stabbed.

The officer spoke with the man, who had a wound in his back. The man said Robinson stabbed him while at the McDonald’s on North Detroit Street in Warsaw. The officer saw a laceration on the back left side of the man’s torso.

A Kosciusko County Sheriff’s deputy spoke with a woman who witnessed the incident. She said it involved her and the two men.

She said she had called the stabbing victim about getting a ride, saying she was at McDonald’s.

The woman said when the man arrived to pick her up, Robinson left the restaurant and went up to the man’s vehicle, striking a side window.

The other man stepped out of the vehicle and began arguing with Robinson. The woman believed Robinson punched the other man in the side.

A WPD investigator got video footage from McDonald’s. In it, Robinson is seen leaving McDonald’s and confronting the other man. Robinson grabs or attempts to hit the driver and then walks away from the vehicle, yelling at the man.

The footage shows Robinson moving toward the vehicle again and the other man leaves the vehicle. Robinson grabs something from behind his back and stabs the other man.

On Tuesday, Nov. 8, another WPD officer received a report regarding the location of Robinson, who had fled the scene of the Monday incident.

Police found him hiding in a closet in a vacant house.

Police found three knives in his possession.

Robinson was previously convicted of aggravated battery in Lake County in July 1994. He was also convicted of battery resulting in bodily injury in Kosciusko County in January 2021.

He was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail on a $20,500 surety and cash bond on Nov. 8.