Charges: Man Choked Woman, Knocked Her Teeth Out
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A 27-year-old man has been charged after police say he knocked his girlfriend's teeth out, strangled her and assaulted her, while her 1-year-old child was in the home.
Russell Eugene Avent, of St. Paul, has been charged with assault, terroristic threats, strangulation, false imprisonment and interfering with an emergency call for an incident on May 2.
According to the complaint, Burnsville police were dispatched to a residence around noon on a report of assault. Upon arrival, they found a woman with numerous scratches and abrasions on her face and head, missing several front teeth and bleeding from the mouth and lips.
The woman told police that she and her boyfriend had been arguing earlier, which led to Avent grabbing her by the hair and throwing her on the floor, while stating several times, "I am going to kill you." According to the complaint, Avent began choking the woman and was questioning whether she was cheating on him.
At that point, police say he grabbed an electric cord attached to a vacuum cleaner and tied her ankles together. The woman said through all of this, he continued to say he was going to kill her.
The complaint states the neighbor then texted the woman, asking to borrow her vacuum cleaner. At this point, Avent allegedly untied the woman, left the apartment and gave the vacuum to the neighbor. He then returned to the apartment and began punching the woman in the face, according to the charges.
The woman told police she was knocked unconscious during the initial blows and later discovered that her teeth had been knocked out.
The woman said Avent choked her repeatedly, at least three separate occasions, during the assault. She said the neighbor's interventions were the only thing that kept her alive. In one instance, when Avent left the apartment to ask the neighbor to buy him cigarettes, the woman was able to find a telephone and lock the apartment door. She called police as he was trying to break into the apartment.
When police arrived, Avent had left the scene in a vehicle with the woman's cell phone. He was stopped shortly after and arrested.
