Inset: Rita Tate (McLennan County Jail). Background: The home where she allegedly attacked her husband with a knife because he got the wrong Valentine’s Day gift (Google Maps).
A 57-year-old woman in Texas was arrested last week after she allegedly attacked her husband with a kitchen knife on Valentine’s Day while the two were in a heated argument because he purchased her the wrong gift. Rita Tate was taken into custody on Friday and charged with one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, court documents state.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, officers with the Waco Police Department at about 10:20 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, responded to a 911 call at a residence in the 5500 block of Black Horse Court in McClellan, Texas. The home is about 100 miles south of Dallas.
The document states that the call was regarding a “domestic disturbance in progress” and was also listed as a “lovers quarrel.”
The “call notes” stated that the caller — later identified as Tate’s husband — had advised the emergency dispatcher that “his wife was being violent and had a knife.” He identified the alleged assailant as Tate.
Upon arriving at the scene, two officers knocked on the door and were let inside by Tate’s husband.
In an interview with police, the husband explained that earlier that morning, he had given his wife a necklace as a Valentine’s Day gift. However, his wife allegedly became upset at the gift because he did not get her the bracelet she really wanted. Tate’s husband then went to work.
The husband arrived home from work at about 4 p.m., the document states. When he arrived, he said that his wife continued to harangue him about the gift, so he decided to leave for a few hours in the hope that his wife would calm down before he returned.
However, when he arrived back at the home, Tate’s husband said his wife was not only angry, she was also armed with a “large kitchen knife.” Tate was allegedly yelling at her husband while wielding the knife, and at one point, he claimed that she pointed the weapon at him and yelled, “come and get it.”
“Mr. Tate stated he felt his life was threatened,” police wrote in the affidavit, which led him to record the encounter. Police reviewed the footage and said they could see Tate with the knife in-hand.
Tate was arrested at the scene, then transported and processed at the McLennan County Jail. As of Thursday afternoon, Tate was no longer listed as an inmate at the facility.
