Man Charged with Strangling Eden Prairie Woman

A Bloomington man has been charged with strangling an Eden Prairie woman after she found out that he was carrying on a relationship with another woman.

Darnell Tyus Jr., 26, is charged with domestic assault by strangulation, a felony with a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, signed by Eden Prairie Police Detective James Lindgren, police were called to a home on Chestnut Drive just before 2 a.m. Nov. 9 on a report of a domestic assault.

The victim told police that her boyfriend, Tyus, assaulted her. The woman had a fresh cut on her forehead and dried blood on her face, police said.

The victim said she had been dating Tyus since January, and he had been staying at her apartment for a few months. She said earlier in the evening, she found a piece of paper with another woman’s name and phone number on it in Tyus’ car.

The victim called the number and spoke to the woman, who said she had been in a relationship with Tyus for two years, according to the complaint. The other woman expressed surprise that Tyus was involved with the victim.

As the victim was speaking on the phone to the other woman, Tyus arrived and began to kick her locked front door. Because she thought he was going to break down the door, the victim opened it, and Tyus entered and pushed her to the ground, she told police.

Tyus momentarily “calmed down,” according to the complaint, but became angry again, slapping the victim’s laptop computer off her lap and breaking it. The two went outside, and Tyus became angrier, the woman told police.

Tyus accused the victim of hiding his phone, and threatened to beat her if she didn’t return it to him, the victim told officers. She said she ran back into the apartment and discovered that Tyus had broken her cell phone.

Tyus chased the victim, pushing in a window to get back into her apartment, according to the complaint. He began to assault her, at one point putting his hands around her throat and squeezing, cutting off her breath, the victim told police.

The victim told Tyus she would retrieve his phone, and when he let her go, she ran outside and hid from him. When she returned, she saw Tyus in his car, speaking on his cell phone.

When she got back inside, she saw that Tyus had smashed her TV and tipped over the dresser in her bedroom, she told police. She said he also let her dog outside, and she was unable to find the animal.

Police found “substantial damage” inside the apartment, along with blood in the bathroom, the kitchen and on the living room floor. They interviewed Tyus, who had blood on his shirt; he denied that any physical altercation had taken place and claimed that the victim had planted the blood on his shirt to “set him up,” according to the complaint.

Tyus remains in the Hennepin County Jail on a $40,000 bond. He is scheduled to make a first appearance on the charge Nov. 14 in Hennepin County District Court.