OCEAN CITY -- An Ocean City man was arrested on a first-degree assault charge this week after allegedly threatening his girlfriend with a knife during an argument over phone calls and text messages from the father of one of her children.

Shortly before 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Ocean City Police responded to a residence on 13th Street for a reported domestic assault that had just occurred. The female victim told officers her boyfriend had threatened her with a knife and only left the residence when she started to call police. The victim provided a description of her alleged assailant, later identified as Allen Scorsher Williams, 35, of Ocean City.

When police arrived on the scene, they observed a suspect matching Williams’ description walking south on Baltimore Ave. in the area of 12th Street and detained him. When questioned by police, the victim said she and Williams had been in an argument about phone messages and text messages, including pictures, she had received by the father of one of her children.

The victim told police Williams was angry about the messages and calls she had received and the argument escalated when he pushed her. The victim told police Williams then grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter and threatened her with it, allegedly saying “why are you doing this to me?” while holding the knife toward her in a threatening manner.

When the victim began calling police, Williams allegedly left the residence with the knife still in his hand, although he was not found in possession of the weapon when he was detained by police a short distance away. When asked if Williams threatened her with the knife, the victim told police “he held the knife in the air as if he was going to stab me with it, but really I think it was just to scare me” and later conceded “I don’t think he would have used it.”

When interviewed by detectives, Williams told police a slightly different version of the events. Williams acknowledged the couple had an argument and that he was angry over the calls and text messages along with pictures of the victim and her child’s father together, and that she had started receiving the messages the night before.

Williams told police he hadn’t pulled a knife on the victim and that there weren’t even any knives in the residence apart from plastic silverware. Williams also denied shoving the victim, telling police “I didn’t put my hands on her.”