ELY – A 40-year-old Ely man is facing a third-degree felony assault charge after he allegedly attacked an acquaintance with a canoe paddle last week.
According to the Ely Police Department, Dominic Puglielli used a bent-shaft canoe paddle “like a baseball bat” and struck another person in the head two times last Tuesday at a Pattison Street home.
The incident report states that police were called to the Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital shortly after 6 p.m. on Aug. 18, where Ely police officer Adam Borchert met with the victim “who was being treated for a gaping laceration on his scalp behind the ear.” The laceration was treated with four stitches.
Borchert reported that Puglielli allegedly went to the victim’s house to retrieve the canoe paddle. The victim told police he and Puglielli “had some words” and that Puglielli picked up the paddle and hit him twice in the head. The canoe paddle was broken into several pieces.
Borchert reported that he later went to the victim’s residence where he saw wood splinters and drops of a substance that appeared to be blood. At the residence, according to the incident report, a witness told Borchert that he “saw a flash through the garage window, heard a thwap, saw another flash and heard another thwap.”
The witness told Borchert that Puglielli said the victim “had it coming so I gave him a couple of good lickings.” Puglielli then allegedly told the victim, “You had it coming and don’t make me come back here.”
A felony assault charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.