OCEAN CITY — A Silver Spring, Md. man was arrested on first-degree assault charges last weekend after allegedly trying to choke a female in an Ocean City hotel room on Sunday.
Around 11 p.m. last Sunday, Ocean City Police responded to a reported assault at the Commander Hotel on the Boardwalk at 14th Street. The responding officer went first to the front desk and was then directed to corner of 14th Street and Baltimore Ave. where two females were waiting with a hotel security staffer. The officer spoke with one of the females and identified her as the victim in the alleged attack that had occurred.
The victim told the officer she was staying with friends in the hotel room and had gotten into a verbal argument with a female friend. The other female’s boyfriend, later identified as Adam Nolen, 25, of Silver Spring, got out of bed and told the victim she had to leave. Nolen allegedly then threw all of the victim’s belongings into the hotel hallway.
The victim protested, at which point Nolen allegedly got in her face, called her several names and racial slurs and then knocked her to the ground and began choking her around the neck with both of his hands. While he was on top of the victim and choking her, Nolen allegedly said, “From where I’m from I kill [racial slur] like you.” The victim told police she bit Nolen and pulled his hair in an attempt to get him to stop choking her as she was losing her breath.
Eventually, two other occupants in the room pulled Nolen off of the victim, who gathered her things and left and then called the police. The officer noted a laceration under the victim’s eye, but did not observe any bruising associated with choking. However, another female in the room corroborated the details of the alleged attack.
The victim told police while Nolen was choking her, she was not able to breathe and feared for her life. She said she never did lose consciousness, but was losing her breath. The victim told police Nolen said he knew people and that he had kidnapped people before. The victim told police she has a 3-month-old daughter and feared for her own safety and the safety of her child because Nolen knew where she lived.
The responding officer then went with another OCPD officer to the room along with a representative of the hotel and knocked on the door and asked if Nolen was present. The man who opened the door said he was sleeping and the officer instructed him to get Nolen, who denied assaulting the victim. Nolen was ultimately arrested and charged with first- and second-degree assault.