Man Arrested for Attacking Woman with Bucket of Human Waste

A Seattle man has been accused of throwing a bucket of human waste filled with feces, urine and vomit at a woman Saturday night. In his defense, perhaps his parents never taught him that such behavior is generally frowned upon. The suspect, Ronald V. Ellis, 69, was arrested Wednesday night for assault.

The case for the alleged bucket assault is unclear, but apparently Ellis and the female victim had a long-standing dispute. On Saturday, Ellis called the woman and told her there was something wrong with her car. When she went out to inspect her car, she saw that there was, in fact, nothing wrong with it. She then started walking upstairs to her apartment when she was hit with the contents of the bucket, by a man she identified as her neighbor.

According to the police report, the fire department was called in to clean up the human waste but it was so massive that they could not complete the work. A biohazard team was called in instead. The victim gave a statement to the police, which was difficult because the "odor made the interview difficult to tolerate," The Seattle PI reports.

Generally speaking, assault and battery occur when a person attempts to or succeeds in physically striking another person, or act in threatening manner that causes fear of immediate harm. Historically, the common law treated the threat of injury as "assault", and the actual physical contact as "battery," but most states no longer use such a differentiation.

No word yet on what explanation or defense Ronald V. Ellis has offered.

Related Resources:

• Assault/Battery (FindLaw)
• Criminal Law Basics (FindLaw)
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