ELLSWORTH, Maine — Police officers early Tuesday morning tasered a 20-year-old man in order to stop him from choking his pregnant girlfriend.
Police received a call at about 2:20 a.m. reporting a domestic assault at the Colonial Motel where George Mitchell, 20, of Bethlehem, Pa., and his girlfriend, who is five months pregnant, were living.
Ellsworth police Officers Rick Roberts, Chad Wilmot and Andrew Weatherbee went to the scene. When the officers arrived at the motel, they found Mitchell in the second-floor hallway choking the 20-year-old New Jersey woman.
“He had her pinned up against the wall, choking her,” said Lt. Harold Page of the Ellsworth Police Department.
The officers ordered Mitchell, who police said was intoxicated, to release the woman and when he failed to follow those orders, Officer Chad Wilmot tasered the man. According to Page, the Taser worked the way it was supposed to and Mitchell immediately released the woman.
The Taser did not affect the woman, but she suffered numerous injuries from Mitchell’s assault, Page said. She initially was taken to Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth and later transferred to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. According to Page, the woman suffered a cut lip which required stitches, a broken finger and torn ligaments in her neck. She was treated at the hospital and later released.
Officers arrested Mitchell and took him to Hancock County Jail where he remained in custody Tuesday night. Mitchell faces charges of elevated aggravated assault on a pregnant person, a Class A felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. He also was charged with assault against a night manager at the motel who tried to intervene.