LYNNWOOD — A Mountlake Terrace woman who stabbed a man Monday with forks and kitchen knives said she acted in self-defense in what she believed was a sexual assault, police said Tuesday.

The woman, 26, told police she’d been raped at the man’s apartment.

The man, 55, remained in serious condition Tuesday in the intensive care unit at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

He was stabbed in the arm, shoulder and stomach and required surgery when he was rushed to the hospital Monday, according to a police affidavit filed Tuesday in Everett District Court.

The woman remained behind bars Tuesday for investigation of first-degree domestic violence assault. She was arrested after a nurse trained to work with sexual assault victims found no evidence that the woman had been physically or sexually assaulted, police said.

Police first learned about the incident when a tow truck driver spotted the woman’s car parked alongside I-5 near I-405. She reportedly ran out of gas.

The woman told investigators she’d just stabbed a man because he tried to rape her.

Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies found the man moaning inside his apartment in the 3600 block of 156th Street SW. He had stab wounds, and told deputies he believed he was dying. He said he didn’t know the name of the person who attacked him.

The woman told police she recently moved out of the apartment complex where the man lived and had returned Sunday to visit with a friend. The friend wasn’t home, so the woman went to see the man instead, police said.

The pair reportedly drank beer and smoked marijuana. That’s when the woman said the man tried repeatedly to pull down her pants.

She told police she was able to get away and grabbed knives and forks from a kitchen drawer. She told detectives she snapped and thought about killing the man but “decided he needed to be saved,” police said.

The woman reportedly told different versions of the events as detectives interviewed her.

Detectives are investigating the relationship between the man and the woman.

After the woman was booked into the Snohomish County Jail, she reportedly asked a corrections officer if she’d be housed with child molesters.

The officer told her there were all types of people at the jail.

The woman reportedly replied, “I’m not prejudiced either, I just killed one, he tried to rape me,” police said.

A judge on Tuesday ordered the woman held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437, jholtz@heraldnet.com.