State police said they charged a New York man in connection with a Sept. 20 stabbing in Essex that resulted in life-threatening injuries for one of the two victims.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Ronald Brooks, 24, of Staten Island was charged Thursday with first-degree assault, first-degree criminal attempt at assault, second-degree assault and carrying a dangerous weapon.

Troopers were called to the historical Griswold Inn on Main Street and a nearby gas station on Sept. 20  to investigate a double stabbing. Two victims, a 35-year-old East Hartford man and a 33-year-old Middletown woman whose names were not disclosed by state police, were taken for medical treatment. The male victim, who was injured more severely in the stabbing, was transported to Yale New Haven Hospital, while the woman was taken to Middlesex Health Shoreline Medical Center.

According to the affidavit, police and emergency medical personnel had found the victims outside the Griswold Inn. The man was unresponsive and the woman had been cut on her face. After conducting interviews with the injured woman, the Sunoco Gas Station store clerk and consulting security footage, police determined that a verbal exchange had led to a physical altercation and eventually the stabbing of the two victims.

Brooks and the male victim were parked next to each other at the gas station, and at one point during their altercation, Brooks sprayed gas on the victim. The victim's girlfriend got out of the car and used their gas pump to spray Brooks. The man and the woman left after a physical and verbal confrontation that didn't involve weapons, only to return a minute later, with Brooks still in the parking lot, to pick up clothes that had fallen out of their car.

"The male victim returns to his vehicle as the suspect is running toward the two victims' vehicle," the affidavit reads. "As the male is reseated in the driver's seat, the suspect opens the driver's side door and appears to punch or stab the male victim using his right hand. It was later learned that the suspect stabbed the male victim in his chest area."

The video showed that Brooks then ran around to the other side of the car and cut the female victim's face, according to the affidavit. Panicking, the male and female victims left the gas station.

The woman told investigators the two were not from the area and didn't really know where they were going, which is how they ended up at the Griswold Inn. While trying to take driving duties from her boyfriend, whose condition was worsening, she said the car hit a light pole on Main Street. She tried to get her boyfriend out of the car, but he collapsed into the street.

She then ran into the Griswold Inn and called for help. When she came back outside, several people were holding cloth napkins to her boyfriend's chest and abdomen area to slow the bleeding.

The male's injuries included a "serious stab wound to the left side of his chest area, which punctured his heart muscle and lungs, resulting in him requiring emergency surgery," the affidavit reads.

He later was released from Yale New Haven Hospital and transferred to a private medical rehabilitation facility in the Hartford area. Police said both he and his girlfriend were found to have potentially shoplifted clothes from the Clinton Crossing Outlet Mall earlier that day, and active arrest warrants had been issued for both of them.

"Additional arrests not directly associated with the stabbing incident are expected," state police said Friday in a news release.

Brooks, who had apparently been living in Guilford with his father, was the subject of two noncriminal but suspicious calls in August, one with Westbrook police and another with Clinton police. In an interview with police, Brooks's father said he'd recently been worried about his son's mental health.

After being contacted by police on Sept. 21 and denying a request to be interviewed, Brooks obtained legal counsel. His lawyer, Michael Dolan, called state police and said Brooks would voluntarily surrender himself if police produced a warrant.

Brooks is being held in lieu of $250,000 bond and was expected to appear in Middlesex Superior Court on Friday.

s.spinella@theday.com