Man charged with assault
A Butler man is accused of dousing his wife with gasoline during an argument Tuesday outside their home.
The suspect, 36-year-old Ryan P. Bradley, later allegedly snatched the victim by the hair and dragged her up the stairs, Butler police said.
A neighbor notified authorities after seeing the attack and hearing the woman scream for help, according to court documents.
Police arrested the defendant after his wife, Samantha Bradley, managed to get away and run to the neighbor’s house on North Elm Street.
District Judge Sue Haggerty arraigned Bradley on a felony charge of aggravated assault and misdemeanor charges of simple assault and reckless endangerment.
He remains in the Butler County Prison on $50,000 bail.
Police said they were called about 10:30 a.m. for the domestic dispute involving a man and woman — later identified as the Bradleys — inside a car that had stopped in front of the couple’s home in the 500 block of North Elm Street.
A neighbor provided an eyewitness account, telling investigators that she heard arguing and then saw the suspect “pouring gasoline onto the (victim),” a police affidavit said.
Samantha Bradley got out of the car but was accosted again by her husband. Soon, he was allegedly dragging her by the hair up the concrete steps.
The victim was yelling, “Someone please help me,” the neighbor told police.
Samantha Bradley escaped her husband’s grip and ran to the house of the neighbor, who took the victim in and locked the door, documents said.
The woman reeked of gasoline and she described her eyes and skin as burning, when officers spoke to her at the neighbor’s house.
The defendant, when interviewed, claimed his wife struck him several times in the head and that “somehow the gasoline was spilled on her,” the affidavit said.
But officers noted they saw no visible injuries on Bradley.
While being driven by police to the station, however, he blurted out that he was on medication and that he “just flipped out,” documents said.
Police later recovered a gas can, equipped with a “spillproof” spout, at the Bradley home.
Samantha Bradley told police that she and her husband had purchased the can and gasoline for it after their car ran out of fuel earlier that morning.
