Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Dad puts gun to ex's head, assaults 2-year-old son (Trenton, New Jersey)

This is one of the more poorly written articles I have ever seen. There was no "alleged" assault. It was an assault. And what is this about the ex-girlfriend "ratting him out" to the police? What the hell? Somebody beats you and holds a gun to your head and you're not allowed to talk to the police or it's "ratting out"? Is this reporter an ex-gang member or what? I see that even in the comments, somebody called out the reporter on this wretchedly bad piece of journalism.

http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2010/03/23/news/doc4ba85d830302b440382363.txt

Cops: Man put gun to ex's head and whacked his 2-year-old son
Published: Tuesday, March 23, 2010

TRENTON — A Pennsylvania man who allegedly put a gun to his ex-girlfriend’s head and injured their 2-year-old son was grabbed by police after she ratted him out at the hospital, police said.

Arteamus W. Stephens, 22, of Morrisville, Pa.,was held on $150,000 bail on charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, weapons offenses, issuing terroristic threats and endangering the welfare of a child — his little boy, whom he clunked on the head during the alleged assault.

The 11:30 p.m. incident Friday occurred inside an apartment in the 100 block of Oakland Street when Stephens came banging on his ex-girlfriend’s door after she told him not to come over.

Reluctantly, she let him in, said Detective Sgt. Pedro Medina, city police spokesman.

After checking out the house, Stephens then “confronted the victim and began to assault her about the head and body,” Medina reported. “At one point, the suspect pulled out a black semi-automatic handgun and while pressing the gun against the victim’s head, threatened to shoot her and continued to physically assault her.

“During the continuous assault, their 2-year-old son ran by (his mother’s) side and was struck on the forehead by his father (Stephens).”

The mother finally convinced Stephens to take them to Capital Health’s Mercer campus hospital, where she alerted staff about what happened to her. Hospital security and city police were summoned. When Stephens heard that cops were on their way, he took off.

Later at the victim’s house, police seized the 9mm Ruger. On a trip out to his unmarked car, Detective Otis Wood spotted Stephens sitting outside in the back of a silver minivan and took him into custody.

After a rash of domestic violence murders in 2009, Trenton has not seen one in 2010.