SALINE CO.— A violent encounter on Lincoln Street in Harrisburg May 21 left one woman beaten and a teen frightened.
According to 16-year-old Andrea D. Stuby, she was sitting on her front porch at 101 East Lincoln that night at approximately 11:50 p.m. when 18-year-old Jeremiah Clinton Morgan, of 112 South Main St., Harrisburg, came stumbling down the sidewalk and asked her if she were single.
“I said yes and then he said ‘do you want a boyfriend’ and I said no and he asked me if I would have sex with him, I said no,” Stuby told authorities.
Stuby said she then called her grandmother to see where her brother was and Morgan started asking her about her brother.
Shortly thereafter Stuby said Morgan pulled a bottle out of his pants pocket and started drinking.
Suddenly Morgan busted the bottle of booze on Stuby’s porch.
“The porch smelled like alcohol and I told him to pick up the busted glass,” she said.
Stuby said he complied and walked across the street and disposed of the glass somewhere and began trying to get into cars.
“He tried to get into four cars and I told him he was a dumbass,” she said.
That’s about the time Stuby spotted her neighbor, 22-year-old Brittany L. Gunning, of 106 East Lincoln and asked her if she could make Morgan leave.
“I was outside smoking,” Gunning said. “I told him to get down the road and keep moving and the next thing I know he had me in a headlock and was slamming me against an RV.”
Gunning said she couldn’t breathe, Morgan had such a grip on her throat.
“He grabbed her,” Stuby said. “And he yelled at her ‘You stupid bitch! I could kill you! There are no cops around!’ The he hit her in the face, started walking away then came back and started pushing her.”
Officer Bob Smith arrived on scene and took statements from both women.
He later caught up with Morgan and transported him to the Saline County Detention Center where he was booked on formal charges of Aggravated Battery/Strangulation and Aggravated Battery in a Public Place.
At the time of his arrest Morgan was out on bond from an earlier arrest on charges of two counts of Battery in a Public Place and Ingestion of Toluene (huffing).
Morgan was released from police custody after a $1,000 cash bond was posted on his behalf by Eric Morgan of the same South Main Street address as Jeremiah Morgan.