Man faces domestic battery charges

A fight between lovers sent one to the hospital and one to jail.

Burchill Perry, 40, faces preliminary charges for strangulation, domestic battery, confinement, resisting law enforcement and interfering with reporting a crime.  

Bloomington Police Officer Dana Runnebohm and Officer Matt Gilmore were dispatched to the 700 block of S. Square Drive at  9:45 p.m. Tuesday for a domestic violence call. When officers arrived, they heard a female yelling for help, BPD Sgt. Jeff Canada said, reading from a police report.

Officers approached the residence and knocked on the door. No one came to answer and it was locked, so officers began kicking the door in.

Before they were able to get the door down, a juvenile answered. When Runnebohm entered the residence, a female came running down the stairs screaming for help, running past Runnebohm and outside of the home, Canada said.

Gilmore said he began speaking with the victim. Perry then began walking down the steps toward Runnebohm.

Perry ignored repeated police orders to show his hands, after which Runnebohm put him in handcuffs.

Officers called for an ambulance for the female victim after several noticeable signs of strangulation, a bloody lip, blood coming from her mouth and several red marks around her neck, Canada said.

The victim told police she and Perry had been fighting all day when he pushed her on the bed upstairs and put a sheet and blanket over her head.

She said she was unable to breathe and tried to fight him off. Once under the blanket, she felt Perry put a lamp on the bed and he began wrapping the lamp electrical cord around her neck on top of the blanket. The victim told police she went unconscious and woke up shortly after.

When Runnebohm walked through the home with the victim, she observed the bed on which the victim said the incident took place off the bed frame and the lamp on the bed, Canada said.

Perry refused to answer police questions and only said he needed to talk to the victim because the bills are in her name.

Perry was taken to the Monroe County jail.