Ryan Burton
R
yan Burton, 26, was arrested after ripping off the bottom part of his roommate’s ear during an altercation in March, police said.
Officers spoke to Burton’s three roommates at 434 Whitehall Road, where they said they had been living with the suspect for more than six months and never known him to be violent.
One of the roommates, Garrett Forster, told police that the defendant had begun to yell at him about a dog, eventually hitting him and wrestling him to the ground. Mr. Forster said he believed the suspect was on drugs.
After the fight, the victims said Burton started breaking items in the house and throwing punches at another roommate, Zackary Schulz. Mr. Schulz told officers that one of the suspect’s punches caused the suspect’s finger to get stuck in his gauged ear hole, ripping the bottom part of his ear completely off.
Victims said that after the incident, Burton repeatedly stated that he was “going to rip the other ear off, too.”
Mr. Schulz said he received 22 stitches in the emergency room where his ear lobe was missing.