Boyfriend smashes window, kills man he says tried to assault girlfriend, IN cops say

An Indiana man was caught on surveillance camera smashing through a plexiglass window and killing another man at a motel, police told news outlets.

Officers responded to the Esquire Inn, in Evansville, on Saturday night and found 36-year-old DeWayne Bruce Whitney, Jr., sitting in his car near the scene, WFIE reported. A man was dead inside the motel and Whitney told a firefighter that he killed him, according to police.

Officers arrested Whitney on a charge of murder, a police report shows.

Whitney told investigators that the victim had tried to sexually assault his girlfriend, so he went to the motel to confront him, WEHT reported. Whitney’s girlfriend backed up that claim, police said.

Investigators say the man was an employee at the motel and also the woman’s ex-boyfriend, the Evansville Courier & Press reported.

Whitney was staying at the motel with his girlfriend and at one point returned to their room to and saw the employee “fixing his pants,” the newspaper reported. She told investigators the employee attempted to sexually assault her and, moments before, he had texted her and “demanded” she go to her room at the motel.

Following a brief altercation in the room, surveillance videos captured Whitney confronting the man a second time elsewhere in the motel, then punching and breaking a plexiglass window to get to the man, then pushing him against a wall, police told the station.

During the struggle, investigators say the man can be seen raising his hands, which are covered in blood, WFIE reported. He was stabbed in the chest and died at a hospital, police said.

Whitney was booked into the Vanderburgh County Jail, records show.

This story was originally published May 12, 2024 at 9:02 AM with the headline "Boyfriend smashes window, kills man he says tried to assault girlfriend, IN cops say."