Chesterton Police were greeted by a woman covered in blood and screaming on the front porch of a South 18th Street residence early Saturday morning. The woman later told police that she and her boyfriend had argued and that he fired a handgun as she was fleeing. One bullet glanced off a cellphone sh e was holding and struck the left side of her head, causing a skull fracture, according to a probable cause statement filed in Porter County Superior Court. It was the start of a standoff outside a multi-family house in the 100 block of S. 18th Street that lasted more than four hours. The Porter County Emergency Response Team fired pepper gas into the house, causing Ian Patrick Toole to surrender at 6:50 a.m. Saturday Toole, 37, now faces a Level 1 felony charge of attempted murder and additional felony charges of aggravated assault, domestic battery and strangulation. The charges state that Toole fired a .380 caliber three times, with one shot hitting his girlfriend. The woman was taken to South Bend Memorial Hospital, where she is in serious but stable condition, Police Chief Tim Richardson said. There were a number of people at the residence because Toole and his girlfriend had spent Friday night and into Saturday morning at a Portage bar, celebrating his 37th birthday, charging documents state. When later interviewed by a Chesterton Police detective, Toole estimated that he had consumed at least 20 beers and several shots of liquor, the court record says. A number of the couple’s friends were staying over at the S. 18th Street apartment, shared by Toole and his girlfriend. The friends who were staying at the apartment later told police that they heard Toole and his girlfriend argue over allegations that Toole was unfaithful. They could hear loud crashing noises and what sounded like items being thrown. And then they heard multiple gunshots, the court record says. One witness said he saw Toole, who apologized and then sat down on the floor in his room that was in disarray from the previous fight, court documents said. When interviewed at the hospital, the woman said that she had seen a text message on Toole’s phone and confronted him about his infidelity. Toole became enraged and struck the woman multiple times in the face and then choked her, the court document says. She scratched Toole on the face and was able to get away and run toward the front door. She was near the front door when Toole fired the gun, according to court documents. “(She) recalled falling to the ground and stated that Ian attempted to place the handgun into her right hand,” the court document says, noting she believed that Toole was trying to make it look like she shot herself. Investigators later determined that Toole was about 10 feet away from his girlfriend when he fired, court documents say. When Toole was later confronted by a Chesterton police detective, he stated, “he did not remember any of it.”  However, he acknowledged that his girlfriend was a truthful person, the court document says. The Porter County ERT Team tried to contact Toole using sirens, drones and a loudspeaker announcement in an attempt to draw him out. All of the others were out of the apartment when the pepper gas was used. A .380 caliber handgun was found inside the apartment, court documents say. Toole is being held in the Porter County Jail. His bond is scheduled to be set at an initial hearing, according to an online court docket. Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune. ...read more read less