BUFFALO TWP — Dale Orris is in love and can't wait to get married. But his wedding will have to wait for now.

His fiancée is charged with trying to kill him.

Buffalo Township police last week accused Dawn N. Tattershall, 37, with attempted first-degree murder and other charges. They say she attacked the 53-year-old Orris with a butcher knife.

The alleged attack, according to charging documents, happened June 16 at Orris' home and left him with three stab wounds, and in need of hospital treatment.

Police said they ended up having to twice Taser Tattershall before she was arrested and eventually was admitted to Butler Memorial Hospital for mental health reasons.

Orris, however, claimed police overreacted to the situation, which he described as an “accident”— nothing more.

“This got blown way out of proportion,” he told the Butler Eagle on Friday.

Orris said he was dumbfounded to learn that Tattershall was charged with his attempted murder.

“She wouldn't do that to me,” he said. “She loves me.”

He defended the woman of his affection against the allegations and seemed to characterize her as every bit the victim as he, maybe more.

In his recitation of events that day, Orris said he and Tattershall and two friends were at his home for a get-together. He said the defendant has lived with him since he moved there about two years ago.

Orris was cooking outside on the grill and at some point he went into the house. Tattershall had gathered up some of the food along with a kitchen knife, he said, and followed him inside.

According to Orris, when he “spun around” to see who was behind him, “I got stuck with the knife” that Tattershall was holding. He was cut on the back.

“She got scared and I went to grab the knife,” he said. That's when he was cut a second time on the top of the shoulder.

The cuts, he claimed, “didn't bother me.”

Afterward, he recounted, his fiancée repeatedly said, “I'm sorry.”

One of Orris' friends that was there apparently called 911 to report what happened.

“I told (the friend), 'Put the phone down. I don't want the police.”

Orris also admitted that he tried to hide the knife.

“I threw it into a shed,” he said. “I didn't want anyone getting into trouble over something stupid.”

But police got the call about 5:45 p.m. for a reported domestic disturbance at the house. They got there and reportedly found Orris standing in the middle of the street and covered in blood.

They described his injuries as bleeding wounds to the middle of the chest, back and upper left arm. He told them, court documents said, that Tattershall stabbed him.

Orris on Friday, however, minimized his injuries.

“I was not hurt that bad,” he said. He also denied being stabbed in the chest.

Police said they went to the house to look for Tattershall and had to force open the locked front door. She then ran into a back bedroom, police said.

She yelled to the officers, “come in and shoot me,” documents said.

When police went into the room, they found her standing on the other side of the bed. They said she took a “defensive stance” and refused to get on the ground.

Orris on Friday said he was trying to get the officers out of his house when he saw one of them deploy his Taser against Tattershall.

He looked on as police forced her to the floor.

“I told (police), 'Get off of her. Leave her alone. That's a girl,'” he said. “They were being very rough with her.”

He claimed police also forced him to go by ambulance to Allegheny Valley Hospital in Natrona Heights, Allegheny County, to be treated for injuries.

The treatment, he said, consisted of a “few stitches“ to his back and arm.

Before being taken to the station, documents said, Tattershall told one of the officers that “the voices in her head told her to stab Orris and that she didn't mean to hurt anyone.”

Police eventually took her to Butler Memorial Hospital for a mental health evaluation, after she allegedly made statements that she wanted to kill herself.

Orris told the Butler Eagle that his fiancée suffers from bipolar disorder, for which she takes medication.

He also admitted that they had been drinking alcohol at the time of the incident.

Police Chief Tim Derringer said his department consulted with the Butler County District Attorney's Office before police June 18 charged Tattershall with attempted murder of the first degree, attempted homicide, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and resisting arrest.

Derringer previously said that he knew Orris did not want the defendant charged. He would not discuss the account Orris provided Friday.

Police said they plan to arraign Tattershall once she is released from the hospital. Her attorney, Scott Bitar of New Kensington, Westmoreland County, declined to comment about the case Wednesday.

Orris, meanwhile, called his fiancée “harmless,” and vowed he would not cooperate in the prosecution of the woman he is eager to marry.

“I will not testify against her. I never would,” he said. “I love her to death.”