Alex Lovell, 29, was left with life threatening injuries when he was attacked by his girlfriend who was armed with a samurai sword.
With her boyfriend finally asleep, Emily Javier allegedly reached for the samurai sword she had secretly taped earlier to the side of the bed.
According to an affidavit filed by police, the room was dark, and she sparked her phone to see better. To aim better.
Below snoozed Alex Lovell. He played too many videos games, Javier would later explain to the police, and now he was cheating on her, she claimed. She knew the signs. Tinder on his phone. Scratches across his back. A girl's hair in their shower drain. In the weak phone glow, Javier allegedly started hacking.
Lovell woke to his girlfriend of two years attacking him with a sword, police say. Survival instincts - mainly martial arts training and all the Kung Fu films he had watched - clicked in.
"I was able to wing chun my way to survival," he told the Oregonian/OregonLive in an interview this week over Facebook messenger, referring to a Chinese martial art. He eventually wrapped Javier in a bear hug. "I saw the look in her eyes, and it scared the living poop out of me," he told the news outlet. "I told her I loved her, and she was killing me. She needed to call police, or I was going to die."
Javier broke off the attack and made the call, frantically telling a 911 operator she had stabbed her boyfriend and she thought he was dead."You used a sword? the operator asked.
When police did arrive at the scene on March 3, they found Lovell curled up in the blood-spattered bedroom, according to the probable cause affidavit filed by police in Camas, a Washington state town east of Portland, Oregon. Remarkably, he survived the attack despite serious injuries. Lovell almost lost the index, middle and ring fingers on his hand. But in a series of interviews this week, the competitive gamer sounded happy to be alive.
"I was just so proud for beating this samurai wannabe crazy lady with hate in her heart," the 29-year-old told the Oregonian/OregonLive. "I've been preparing my whole life for something like this."
Javier - who pleaded not guilty this week to first-degree attempted murder, according to the Columbian - had also allegedly been preparing.
Alex Lovell - known as "Biggie" in his local gamer scene - is an avid player of PlayerUnknown's Battleground, a multiplayer online fighting game. As he told the Oregonian/OregonLive, Lovell has been recently logging 12 to 13 hours a day playing the game. The regimen also required "exercises for his hands, wrists and shoulders and also practicing mouse moves and techniques to maximise performance," the paper reported.
"I wasn't a sweaty nerd, more of an Ethlete," Lovell told the Oregonian/OregonLive.
In an interview with police after the attack, Javier, 30, admitted she was frustrated with her boyfriend for staying glued to his game. Then, a week before the violent incident, Javier said she had discovered Lovell was unfaithful. According to the affidavit, she told police she discovered Tinder, the dating app, on his phone. She also noticed scratches on his back, possibly from a romantic encounter. She found red hair in the shower drain - her own hair was dyed green.
She did not confront her boyfriend. In the past, he had just denied such accusations. This time Javier went to the mall and bought a samurai sword. "I thought, I was gonna stab him while he was sleeping," she told police.
The relationship reached a crisis point on March 2. According to the police affidavit, Lovell came home but ignored his girlfriend. She allegedly decided to go through with the attack, taping the sword and two knives to the bed. Javier also told police she hid Lovell's phone so he could not call for help. When Lovell finally went to sleep, she reached for the sword.
In an interview with the Columbian this week, Lovell denied he was unfaithful. "I barely had time to hang out with my girlfriend, let alone another girl," he told the paper. "I didn't see it coming, but it makes sense that it happened. She obviously didn't want anyone else to have me so, samurai sword."
Doctors were able to reattach Lovell's fingers where they were nearly hacked off at the base. He also suffered wounds to his feet, legs, torso, neck and head. His right arm is currently in a cast. Members of the local gaming scene set up a GoFundMe page for his medical bills. The fund is just US$2000 shy of its US$10,000 goal after 10 days.
Javier remains in custody. Her attorney did not return an email for comment.
"The feeling I had when I won the fight with my bare hands is just absolutely the best feeling," Lovell boasted this week from the hospital. "I've played all the sports, won big games, landed some decent tricks on my snowboard. This was better."