A man was stabbed in the neck with a boxcutter Thursday after he physically assaulted his girlfriend in southwest suburban Riverside.
The incident occurred in a vehicle about 5:50 p.m. in the 3500 block of Harlem, Riverside police said in a statement.
The 23-year-old driver, Patrick D. Covington, began slapping his girlfriend after she received several text messages, police said. Covington struck his 21-year-old girlfriend in the mouth, causing her upper lip to split open and bleed, the statement said.
The woman asked her boyfriend to pull over so she could exit the vehicle but Covington denied her request, and continued attacking her, police said. A struggle soon ensued and the woman pulled out a boxcutter and stabbed Covington in the neck, according to police.
The man then drove to MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn and went inside to receive treatment. His girlfriend, however, used the vehicle to drive away and call police from a White Castle parking lot.
Officers took both in custody, but the woman was later released after they determined she acted in self-defense, police said.
Covington, of the 1900 block of South Oak Park Avenue in Berwyn, was treated for superficial stab wounds and released to police. He was charged with one count of domestic battery, police said.