Lawrence Police Sgt. Trent McKinley, right, talks with an officer on scene at the Super 8, 515 McDonald Drive, on June 24, 2015, after a stabbing victim was found just inside the building's front doors.

The owner of Lawrence’s Super 8 motel accused of stabbing his wife last month allegedly did so because his wife was “fat,” according to the recently released affidavit that supported the man’s arrest.

Navinkumar Patel

Lawrence Police Sgt. Trent McKinley, right, talks with an officer on scene at the Super 8, 515 McDonald Drive, on June 24, 2015, after a stabbing victim was found just inside the building's front doors.

Navinkumar Patel, 46, of Shawnee, is charged with attempted first-degree murder after allegedly stabbing his wife twice in the abdomen at his Super 8 motel, 515 McDonald Drive.

According to the arrest affidavit — which details allegations only, not proven facts — Patel’s wife was standing in the motel lobby around 1 p.m.on June 24 preparing a bowl of cereal when Patel approached her with “an item behind his back.”

As Patel’s wife was sitting down to eat, Patel allegedly “began yelling at her and asking her why she was eating,” she told police. When she told Patel that she was hungry, according to the affidavit, Patel allegedly began repeatedly telling her he was going to kill her.

Patel would later tell police that “he was very ‘mad’ at ‘her’ because she was ‘fat,'” according to the affidavit.

The woman claimed that Patel displayed a black pocketknife and opened the blade. Video surveillance allegedly shows Patel lunging at his wife several times, and the wife “retreating from him as she uses a cereal box to shield herself from (Patel’s) attack,” the affidavit read.

The wife eventually retreated into an office area, and Patel followed, according to the accounts of the video footage in the affidavit. She then tried to make a phone call, but Patel allegedly lifted her left wrist, stabbing her two times in the abdomen between her sternum and navel.

She then broke away and ran. An “unknown man” provided first aid and helped her call police, Lawrence Police Detective M.T. Brown wrote in the affidavit. Patel allegedly returned to the office “still carrying the knife,” but didn’t attack her.

Lawrence police originally began to respond to a 911 hang-up, the affidavit said, because a “hysterical female” called police for help but hung up. When police arrived, an officer asked Patel if there was a disturbance going on, and Patel directed him to the office, according to the affidavit.

Patel then handed the knife, which he still had in hand, to the officer, according to the affidavit. Patel then allegedly told the officer, “I stabbed her.”

The officer order Patel to sit in the lobby as he inspected the woman, who was holding a blood-soaked towel to her stomach. Medics responded and took the woman to Lawrence Memorial Hospital with two 2-centimeter stab wounds. She was hospitalized, but has since been released.

After his wife was taken away by ambulance, Patel appeared calm as he walked from the Super 8 to enter a police vehicle across the parking lot. Once he arrived at the police Investigations and Training Center, Patel allegedly said he was “punched in the face and that had made him angry. Before police could interrogate him, Patel invoked his Miranda rights and asked to talk to an attorney before making a statement.

Patel remains in the Douglas County Jail on a $500,000 bond. He is banned from contacting his wife, returning to their shared Shawnee home or to the Super 8. The motel remains in business.

Patel’s is scheduled on Aug. 6 for a preliminary hearing, at which a Douglas County district judge will listen to evidence to decide whether there is probable cause to bind Patel over for trial.