Bristol Man Arrested for Attempted Murder After Overnight Stabbing

Cranston Police charged a Bristol man with attempted murder after he allegedly accosted and stabbed his estranged girlfriend from Cranston nine times shortly after 2 a.m. last night.

Cranston Police Major Robert W. Ryan said Christopher Amaral, 33, of 28 Roosevelt Drive, Bristol, accosted the victim outside her Garden Street apartment after she came home from a night out at Twin River. After an argument, police said Amaral stabbed her with an “unknown object” nine times and she suffered injuries to arms, chest, shoulders and neck, including an injury to a neck vertebrae.

When police first arrived at the scene, they found the victim, identified by police as 21-year-old Andrea Wilmot of Garden Street lying in the driveway with several stab wounds. She was immediately transported to Rhode Island Hospital and her injuries do not appear to be life threatening, police said.

Ryan said police quickly determined Wilmot’s attacker was an estranged acquaintance who was apparently upset she was no longer interested in him.

Earlier in the evening, police said Wilmot went with her sister and boyfriend to the casino and when she left, discovered her car had been vandalized. She immediately thought Amaral was responsible “because she had been receiving calls from him all night and was told not to call again,”

When she got home, she was accosted by Amaral from behind as she got out of her car, police said. He initially just wanted to take a walk with her, but she refused. As they were saying goodnight, “he violently grabbed her and stabbed her” before fleeing the scene, police said.

Amaral’s identity was broadcast to surrounding police forces and he was spotted a short time later on Route 136 by Bristol Police, who turned him over to Cranston officers.

Amaral was charged with assault with the intent to commit murder and will be presented to a bail commissioner later this afternoon.