RUMFORD — A Rumford woman was taken to Oxford County Jail in Paris on Saturday night following a knife fight at Ralph’s Store on Cumberland Street, police said.

Sara Paquette, 20, of Rumford Avenue, was charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, domestic criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, domestic terrorizing and violating conditions of release, Detective Sgt. James Bernard said.

Because Paquette was free on $500 unsecured bail from an Oct. 5 arrest on an assault charge, bail on the new charges was denied and she was taken to jail, he said.

Bernard said that at about 6 p.m. police were notified that a man and a woman were fighting in the store parking lot and they were armed with knives.

The pair, however, fled before police arrived, Bernard said.

“Through their investigation with witnesses, (officers) were able to determine who the two parties were who were fighting,” he said. “They made contact with (Paquette), who was determined to be the predominant aggressor.”

Bernard said Paquette threatened her estranged boyfriend. There was no assault, he said.

“Witness accounts indicated that there were knives involved, but there were no knives located,” he said.

Bernard said officers were extremely busy on Saturday, making seven arrests in 24 hours, including two people for drunken driving and a person who admitted to being under the influence of “bath salts,” the street name for a synthetic hallucinogen.

Additionally, while they were investigating the knife fight, a dispatcher in Paris alerted them that at about 6:25 p.m., a car had struck a deer on Ellis River Road.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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