Jeremiah Page pleaded not guilty after police said he attacked a man he had never met.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville judge set a $750,000 bond for a man accused of attacking a stranger with a cleaver after police said he claimed the victim was on his land.
Jeremiah Page, 30, appeared in court Tuesday on charges of attempted murder and first-degree assault after an attack the day before on Preston Highway in Okolona. Police said Page struck the victim in the head and shoulder, then admitted the assault after officers arrested him nearby. The most striking detail in the early record was the motive investigators said Page gave. According to police, he said he wanted to kill the man because the victim was a foreigner.
The court hearing gave the first public look at how prosecutors and police were framing the case. Page entered a not guilty plea, and the judge kept him in custody on a high bond. The judge said the allegations were serious and pointed to concern about the motive listed in the police paperwork. The hearing did not decide guilt, mental health questions or whether any additional charges would be filed. It set the case on an early path through Jefferson County court, with another date scheduled for April 17.
The charge of attempted murder is tied to what police said Page told them after the arrest. Investigators said Page admitted attacking the man and said he intended to kill him. The first-degree assault charge is tied to the wounds police said the victim suffered when Page struck him with a cleaver-knife. The victim was hit twice in the head and once in the right shoulder, according to the arrest citation. Police said the two men did not know each other, and no public record described any argument between them before Page approached.
The attack happened at about 5:30 p.m. April 6 outside several businesses on the 7300 block of Preston Highway. Police said the victim had been walking south on the sidewalk when Page came toward him with the blade. Witnesses saw the assault and called 911. Investigators also said video captured what happened. The victim, who does not speak English, was still able to communicate with officers after the attack and describe enough for police to connect his account with what witnesses reported.
Police found Page soon after the assault. According to investigative accounts, he fled north on Preston Highway and went back to a camp where he had been staying. Officers said he still had the cleaver believed to have been used in the attack when they located him. Police read him his Miranda rights several times. Investigators said Page then confessed. His alleged explanation was unusual and became central to the case. Police said he claimed the victim was trespassing on his land, that he owned all of Louisville and that he had never met the man before.
The victim was taken to a local hospital after workers from Preston Animal Hospital helped him near the scene. The public record gives two descriptions of the severity of his injuries. Court language described the wounds as serious and life-threatening. Louisville Metro Police later said the injuries were not life-threatening, creating an unclear picture of the medical status in the first days after the attack. Officials did say the victim survived and was expected to live. They did not identify him, release his nationality or say whether he had surgery.
The judge also noted Page’s mental health history during the hearing. The court said Page had a history of mental health issues and had recently been at Central State. That detail was discussed in open court but had not become a formal finding in the criminal case as of the first hearing. A mental health history can lead attorneys to raise questions about competency or treatment, but the reports available after the hearing did not show that the court had ordered a specific evaluation. The charges remained active, and Page remained presumed innocent.
Witness accounts from the commercial area helped fill in what happened before police arrived. Victor Meza, who worked near the scene, said Page had been on a nearby business property earlier in the day and appeared erratic. “He started getting loud and saying all kinds of things like he owned the place,” Meza said. “You could tell something was going on with him, so we just kicked him out.” Meza later saw first responders in the area after the attack. Police did not publicly say whether they had been called about the earlier behavior.
Howard Cobb, another nearby worker, spoke about mental health after the attack and court hearing. “Mental health is so overlooked for the marginalized, for the least,” Cobb said. His comments came as people working along Preston Highway tried to make sense of a violent episode that police described as random. The victim’s inability to speak English also became part of the record, but officials did not identify him as an immigrant or disclose any immigration information. Investigators described him only as the victim of an alleged attack by a man who called him a foreigner.
The legal record still had important gaps after Page’s first appearance. Prosecutors had not publicly said whether they would seek a hate crime enhancement or any added charge tied to the alleged foreigner statement. Police had not released the video they said captured the attack. The cleaver’s recovery was described by officers, but no forensic testing details were made public. The defense had not offered a full account of Page’s version of events beyond the not guilty plea. Those unanswered points are likely to shape future hearings as the case moves forward.
The case also raised basic questions about the victim’s recovery. Officials said he was alive, but they did not give a detailed condition update after the first reports. His language barrier was noted because police said he did not speak English yet still corroborated the incident. It was not clear whether investigators later conducted a fuller interview through an interpreter. Police also did not say whether relatives or community groups had been involved. The lack of identifying details left the public case centered on the charges, the alleged confession and the statements police attributed to Page.
By the next scheduled hearing on April 17, the court record was expected to show whether prosecutors would add any charge tied to the alleged motive or continue on the attempted murder and assault counts already filed.
Author note: Last updated April 29, 2026.