OCEAN CITY — A Brooklyn Park, Md. man was arrested on first-degree assault and other charges last weekend after allegedly attacking his wife in a downtown hotel room.
Around 7:25 p.m. last Saturday, an Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) bicycle officer on patrol in the area of 6th Street responded to a reported assault at a hotel nearby. The hotel manager told Ocean City Communications a female in the room had called the front desk asking for security because she was fighting with her husband, later identified as Kevin Porter, 40, of Brooklyn Park.
When the woman was asked by the hotel manager if she needed the police, she reportedly responded “No, I am okay. I have a gun.”
Upon arrival, the OCPD officer obtained the room number for the fighting couple and went to the room escorted by the hotel manager. According to police reports, the officer heard a loud bang and observed the female victim dive onto the floor in the hallway.
The OCPD officer approached the hotel room door and observed the female victim lying in the floor on her back, crying, gasping and struggling to breathe, according to police reports. She also had her own hands around her throat to give the officer the international sign she was choking, according to police reports.
The initial bicycle officer entered the room and observed three other OCPD officers aiming their service weapons at a man lying on the floor on his stomach at the foot of the bed. The suspect, identified as Porter, complied with the officers’ demands and was taken into custody. The victim was treated at the scene by Ocean City EMS.
According to police reports, she had various injuries, red marks, bruises and a laceration on her leg, all of which appeared to be fresh. The victim told police the injuries were the result of Porter assaulting her, according to police reports. The victim told police she and Porter had been staying in the hotel room since the Friday before the incident and that she wanted to sleep and laid down on the bed.
However, Porter insisted they go out to more bars and grabbed the victim by the hair, spun her around and began choking her, according to police reports. Porter allegedly grabbed the victim by the throat and strangled her and inhibited her ability to breathe. He then pulled her off the bed and dragged her around the room by her hair, according to the victim’s testimony. Porter then shouted at the victim, “I am going to [expletive deleted] kill you,” according to police reports.
The hotel manager told the bicycle officer he went to the hotel room with the three other OCPD officers. When the three OCPD officers entered the room and the victim dove out into the hallway gasping for air, Porter was arrested and charged with first-degree assault and other charges. When read his Miranda rights and warnings, Porter told police, “I plead the Fifth.”
