Police Say Eagan Woman Chased Husband with Meat Cleaver

An Eagan woman has been charged with a felony after police say she chased her husband from their home with a meat cleaver because she was upset about the way he was cleaning up after dinner.

Lynn Elizabeth Tran, 38, faces a felony charge of making terroristic threats, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Tran is free on a $5,000 bond. A motion hearing in her case is scheduled Aug. 29, and an omnibus hearing is scheduled Oct. 10 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.

According to the criminal complaint, Eagan police were called to Tran’s home on Aug. 14 after a man called to say he had been chased out of the house by his wife.

When police arrived, the victim – who had an abrasion on his left forearm and a cut beside his left eye – was standing in a neighbor’s driveway with his twin 2-year-old sons.

The man told police that his family had just finished dinner when Tran became upset because two stools near the dining room island were not pushed in. When she asked him why they weren’t pushed in, he told her that he planned to wash them off with a sponge, the complaint says.

“Tran got upset, and an argument ensued regarding the victim’s choice to use a sponge rather than something else to wipe off the stools,” the complaint says.

Tran grabbed a toaster grate from the oven and swung it at the victim, hitting him in the left arm, according to the complaint. As the victim began backing out of the kitchen, Tran continued to yell and tried to hit him again, he told police.

Tran grabbed a meat cleaver from the counter and began chasing her husband with it, according to the complaint. She swung the knife at his head and he tried to push her away, but at one point she hit him with the knife on the left side of his head, the complaint says.

Tran admitted to police that she got upset with her husband for using a clean sponge, and also admitted hitting him with the toaster grate, the complaint says. However, she told police that she only picked up the knife and held it because she wanted to scare the victim, “but would never have harmed him,” according to the complaint.