A woman was hospitalized in intensive care with life-threatening injuries following a reported assault in a hotel room on South Green River Road in Evansville on Saturday, August 29, 2026. According to WFIE 14 News[1], the Evansville Police Department responded that night to a report at Deaconess Gateway Hospital and arrested a 24-year-old Evansville man.
WFIE reported that officers found the woman with substantial facial swelling, a large bruise to the left side of her face, and bruising to her chest and shoulders that officers described as consistent with a handprint. Her condition deteriorated, and she was intubated in intensive care. Doctors noted an underlying serious health condition but were far more concerned about the severe injuries she sustained during the assault. She has not been named, and her age has not been reported.
What police reportedly found
According to WFIE, officers found the hotel room in disarray, with bloodstains on the bed, floor, and bathroom sink. Multiple search warrants were executed. Police recovered a 9mm Taurus handgun from the center console of the suspect's vehicle. Jaden Ryan Shull, 24, of Evansville was arrested on Hampton Drive and booked into the Vanderburgh County Jail.
WFIE reported preliminary allegations of confinement, strangulation, battery with a deadly weapon, battery with serious bodily injury, and intimidation with a deadly weapon. These are preliminary police allegations, not a prosecutor's charging information. The prosecutor's charging decision has not been reported, and the investigation is ongoing.
WFIE 14 News is the only outlet identified in the available record. The hotel is not named by the source, and nothing in the reporting suggests a failure by the property. No such conclusion should be drawn from the reported facts.
What an injured person should do next
An assault at a hotel or another business open to the public can raise questions that a criminal investigation does not answer. If you are helping someone with serious injuries, preserve the medical record first. Emergency department and intensive care records can provide a detailed contemporaneous account of the injuries and treatment. Police or medical photographs may also matter and generally must be obtained through a formal request. This guide to preserving injury evidence explains why records, photographs, and other time-sensitive material deserve prompt attention.
Ask promptly and in writing that relevant surveillance footage be preserved. Video can be overwritten. Key-card access logs, front-desk records, and prior incident reports may also need a timely preservation request. The firm's premises liability information discusses how evidence and property-control questions can affect an injury claim, but the available reporting does not establish a claim against the hotel in this incident.
The criminal case and any civil claim are separate. An injured person is a witness in the criminal case, not a party to it. Any civil claim follows its own schedule and depends on its own evidence. If the injured person cannot make decisions, a family member may need legal authority, such as a guardianship or power of attorney, before obtaining records or pursuing a claim on that person's behalf.
Why the Evansville location matters
The reported incident occurred at a hotel on South Green River Road in Evansville, Vanderburgh County. The Evansville Police Department is the investigating agency. A civil case arising from the incident would ordinarily be filed in Vanderburgh County, and any criminal charges would be filed by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office.
The general deadline to file an Indiana personal injury lawsuit is two years from the date of injury under IC 34-11-2-4[2]. That period can continue to run while a criminal case is pending. When the injured person is a minor, IC 34-11-6-1[3] tolls the limitations period during the legal disability. You can read more about Indiana injury claim deadlines.
Indiana's comparative fault rule under IC 34-51-2-6[4] applies to negligence claims. An injured person's recovery is reduced by that person's percentage of fault and is barred if that fault is greater than 50 percent. Intentional tort claims are treated differently. An assault on commercial property can potentially involve an intentional claim against the assailant and a separate negligence claim against a property owner, but whether any property claim exists here is unknown. The source identifies no prior similar incident and no security failure.
A claim against an individual assailant may depend on that person's available assets and any applicable insurance. That is why lawyers examine whether another responsible party exists, while avoiding assumptions unsupported by evidence. If an assault results in death, Indiana's wrongful death statutes, IC 34-23-1-1[5], IC 34-23-1-2[6], and IC 34-23-2-1[7], govern who may bring a claim and what may be recovered.
How Delventhal Law Office can help
Delventhal Law Office, LLC is a Fort Wayne personal injury law firm founded by attorney Chad E. Delventhal in 2009. The firm can help seriously injured people preserve surveillance footage and records, obtain police and medical records, and understand applicable deadlines. Insurance companies and other defendants may aggressively defend disputed claims, so careful evidence preservation matters.
If you or a family member was seriously injured, you can request a free case evaluation or review the firm's personal injury services. The first conversation can help you understand what records should be preserved and which deadlines may apply.
This post is based on public reporting, the investigation may be ongoing, and nothing here is legal advice or creates an attorney-client relationship.
