Police: Woman Escaped From Man Who Assaulted Her Two Years Earlier

A woman’s hair was strewn across a bedroom following an apparent domestic assault by her children’s father Sunday.

The woman told police she got to the Oxford Street home a little after midnight and found the father—33-year-old Ronald Edward Harris, of Hopkins—giving a tattoo to her uncle, Detective Raymond Laudenbach wrote in the criminal complaint. He asked how she was doing, and she told him that she’d had a bad day.

The exchange somehow escalated into an argument. The woman said Harris grabbed her near the top of the stairs. She then punched him because she thought he was going to push her down the stairs. Harris then threw her to the ground, hit her and pulled her hair.

Officers later found clumps of hair throughout her bedroom.

The woman told police that Harris then became apologetic and stopped hitting her. But when she went downstairs, he followed her and prevented her from leaving her bedroom for 15 to 20 minutes.

They began fighting again, and Harris ripped her shirt, according to the court documents.

Harris started having an asthma attack during the fight and ran upstairs to get his inhaler. The woman took the screen off the window and tried to crawl out. Although Harris ran back to the room and tried to grab her leg, she was able to get away, according to the criminal complaint.

Officers met her near the Cub Foods pharmacy. She was crying and holding a bruised and swollen left hand. Her shirt was torn and she showed officers a large amount of hair she said had been pulled from her head.

Harris was convicted of domestic assault against the woman in October 2010 and of violating a harassment restraining order in February 2012. Because of those convictions, he’s been charged with felony domestic assault—which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Harris is being held in Hennepin County jail on $40,000 bond. He’s scheduled to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Follow us on Twitter | Like us on Facebook | Sign up for our free daily newsletter | Check out Patch’s Pinterest boards