Pa. woman accused of slashing husband while he slept

A Berks County woman has been charged with slashing her husband's neck while he was sleeping.

Zerong She, 42, allegedly told investigators she wanted to hurt her husband because she said he had a second wife.

The alleged incident happened Wednesday in the couple's Fleetwood home, about 25 minutes outside of Reading.

Officers responded to the couple's house about 1:15 a.m. Wednesday for a domestic disturbance and found that Minheng Chen, 42, "had been cut on the neck by his wife while he slept," the Fleetwood Police Department said in a news release.

Chen was transported to a local hospital and survived.

The couple's niece had placed the 911 call, the Reading Eagle reported. A police officer who arrived at the house found Chen sitting on a living-room chair with a 2-inch bandage covering the front of his neck, the newspaper said.

The wife then came down the stairs and asked to be taken to a hospital, the Eagle reported.

The niece interpreted for She, a Chinese immigrant, who said: "I did it. I hurt my husband," and accused him of having a "second wife," the Eagle reported.

Police recovered a butcher knife alleged to have been used in the stabbing.

Chen, the Eagle reported, had woken up to severe pain on the front of his neck. He told police that his wife had slashed him while he slept, and that he took the knife from her and gave it to his niece, the Eagle reported.

The wife was taken to Penn State Health St. Joseph hospital for a mental health evaluation and was later taken into police custody, the Eagle reported.

She has been charged with attempted murder, possession of an instrument of crime and related offenses, and is in custody at the Berks County Prison in lieu of $250,000 bail. She faces a Nov. 22 preliminary hearing.