During a bar fight, a man stabs another man in the arm with a knife. What crime has he committed?

• A. Battery
• B. Assault with a deadly weapon
• C. Manslaughter
• D. False imprisonment

Answer: (B)

Using a deadly weapon during an assault elevates the charge to assault with a deadly weapon. When someone intentionally inflicts or attempts to inflict harm and a weapon is involved, the offense is charged as aggravated or with a deadly weapon because the weapon adds significant danger. Stabbing with a knife satisfies both the intentional harm element and the presence of a dangerous instrument, which is the hallmark of this crime.

Battery involves actual unlawful physical contact, which is present here since the arm was stabbed, but the knife’s involvement makes the situation specifically fall under assault with a deadly weapon. The other options don’t describe this scenario: false imprisonment is restraining someone’s liberty, and manslaughter relates to causing death, neither of which matches this act.