Suspect who bit victim's ear still at large

Staff report

BOARDMAN

Township police continue to investigate an attempted theft from an auto that left one man with a severed ear.

The incident, which took place at a Lemans Drive parking lot early Sunday, occurred when two men confronted someone appearing to steal items from a vehicle belonging to one of them. The suspect got away after a struggle that led him to bite the right ear of one of the victims, partly severing it.

Police responded to the 110 block of Lemans Drive about 2 a.m. Sunday for a possible theft from auto, according to a police report.

There, police found one victim “visibly bleeding from the right side of his head” who “stated his right ear was just bitten by an unknown suspect,” the report states. An officer “observed a portion of the top of his right ear severed and bleeding.”

The two victims reported that while inside an apartment, they observed a man rummaging through a vehicle in the parking lot. After confronting the suspect, one of the men secured him in a headlock while the other went back inside to get a cellphone and a hammer to use as a “self-defense weapon.”

Meanwhile, the suspect broke free from the man holding him down by biting his ear, then ran away on foot. A search by the victims, neighbors and police failed to locate him.

The injured victim was taken to St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital.