Gainesville Police arrested a Gainesville woman Saturday morning after they said she gnawed two fingers off her elderly housemate’s hand.
At about 7:30 a.m., Linda Kay Swift, 52, repeatedly punched her 89-year-old housemate in his head and chest, according to a police report.
She proceeded to chew off the man’s index finger to the middle knuckle, and his ring finger to the first knuckle, according to the report.
“Yes, I bit his fingers off,” Swift later told police.
Swift then ripped a large piece of skin from the man’s hand using her teeth, according to the report. She lives with the man in a group home in the 1200 block of NW Sixth St.
The man suffered lacerations to his head, along with a significant amount of blood loss and permanent disfigurement, according to the report.
The attack was unprovoked, according to the report.
Saturday’s incident was Swift’s first criminal offense, according to Alachua County court records.
Police arrested Swift on a charge of aggravated assault on a person 65 years of age or older. Authorities took her to the Alachua County Jail where she remains, as of press time, in lieu of a $500,000 bond.
Contact Martin Vassolo at mvassolo@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @martindvassolo.
