WARREN, Pa. — Attempted murder charges against an Ashville man stemming from a December stabbing in Sugar Grove, Pa., have been withdrawn on grounds that the accused acted in self-defense.

Warren County District Attorney Rob Greene announced the decision on Friday in the case against Michael C. Shreve in a statement to the Times Observer newspaper.

The decision came after an extensive investigation and multiple interviews with the alleged victim.

“My responsibility as District Attorney is not to blindly take an alleged victim’s statement and see a win; quite to the contrary, my responsibility is to seek justice,” Greene said. “Sometimes victims are incorrect in their recollection of events and sometimes they do not tell the truth; sometimes the police get the facts wrong, sometimes I get it wrong. However, it is my and law enforcement’s duty to make sure in the end, we get it right and that is why I have made the decision to motion the Court to withdraw all the charges against Michael Shreve.”

Greene explained that the initial report “showed that Mr. Shreve walked up to the ‘victim’ and stabbed him, without provocation.”

“After a thorough and continued investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police and my office, we have a completely different picture of what occurred. The evidence is clear that Mr. Shreve acted in self-defense when the ‘victim’ charged/ran about 35 feet toward Mr. Shreve while yelling in an aggressive manner; this was about 20 minutes after attacking Mr. Shreve and sending a text message to Mr. Shreve’s girlfriend stating, ‘I want to kill him.'”

A motion to withdraw provided by Greene details that the “‘victim’ statements are continuously inconsistent and not truthful” and states that the “‘victim’ admits he was not initially truthful with law enforcement and now states that he was the aggressor and without provocation, he attacked the defendant.”

The district attorney said his office is working with the state police to “determine if charges will be filed against the ‘victim’ in this matter.”