MORGAN COUNTY, Ala. — An Alabama sheriff’s deputy who responded to a report of a suicidal man earlier this week will need reconstructive surgery after the man bit his ear, authorities said.
According to WAFF and WKRG, the incident occurred Tuesday night in the Hulaco area of Morgan County. The Morgan County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call about an apparently suicidal man who appeared to want police officers to kill him, authorities told WAFF.
When first responders arrived and told the 35-year-old that he needed to get a psychiatric evaluation, he fled into a home, officials said. Authorities followed him inside, where he bit off a large portion of a deputy’s ear, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Crews rushed the deputy to a Huntsville hospital, where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and later released, WKRG reported. Doctors could not reattach the ear, so he will need reconstructive surgery, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The man who bit the deputy was taken into custody and could face charges, WAFF and WKRG reported.