Police: Man High on PCPs Rips off Part of His Ear

Norwalk police found a 28-year-old Stratford man covered in blood, disoriented and with one of his ears partially ripped off after he frightened his girlfriend, who fled her apartment and called 911, according to a report in The Hour of Norwalk.

Here’s a partial the account of the incident, from the Hour report based on police statements (which are accusations not proven in court):

Donald Bridgeforth, 28, of 88 Canaan Ct, Stratford, violated a protective order that he have no contact with his girlfriend, a resident living on Elmcrest Terrace. Bridgeforth is a part-time manager at Wendy’s in Stratford (at least before the incident).

Nevertheless, he was at the home, where the couple’s child also lives, on Saturday when he went out to smoke PCP, his girlfriend told police.

A while after Bridgeforth returned and spoke to his brother on the phone, he began acting erratically, muttering about J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy, and banging himself against a wall. That’s when his girlfriend fled. The couple’s child remained in another room in the apartment.

Bridgeforth later ran out of the apartment and was found by police a short distance away. He was unable to explain his behavior to police other than that he had just “flipped out.” He was treated at Norwalk Hospital and charged with disorderly conduct, criminal mischief and criminal violation of a protective order. He appeared Monday in state Superior Court in Norwalk.

For more details of the case, see The Hour’s article.

According to a Web page about PCPs on the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids website:

“At high doses, PCP can cause hallucinations as well as seizures, coma, and death (though death more often results from accidental injury or suicide during PCP intoxication). Other effects that can occur at high doses are nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, flicking up and down of the eyes, drooling, loss of balance, and dizziness. High doses can also cause effects similar to symptoms of schizophrenia, such as delusions, paranoia, disordered thinking, and a sensation of distance from one’s environment. Speech is often sparse and garbled.”