A woman is in critical condition after being thrown from a balcony during a domestic violence incident. | Mat Napo/Unsplash
A woman is in critical condition after being thrown from a balcony during a domestic violence incident. | Mat Napo/Unsplash
A Fayetteville domestic violence case escalated to the point that the victim was hospitalized with critical injuries and the alleged culprit is in jail.
The hours-long ordeal started Wednesday night and continued into the early morning of Thursday before police arrived at the housing complex on Stewarts Creek Drive about 1 a.m.
A neighbor, who didn’t identify herself, said she and her children could hear the terrifying incident as it happened in the unit above them. ”I heard her yelling, 'Stop, please,' yelling his name to stop,” the witness said in a WTVD report, “and I could hear him hit her. He slammed her and she started screaming.”
The neighbor said police nearly left because they couldn't get inside the unit but that she begged them to stay.
”I said, 'Her kids are up there. She has babies up there. So either she's unconscious, or he's holding her against her will,’” she continued in the news report.
It was then, police say, that 26-year-old Thurman Lesley Brewer allegedly threw his partner off of their third-floor balcony. She landed in the woods and is now suffering from severe head trauma.
"I grabbed my daughter and I shook my head because I was like, 'This can't be life right now,’” the witness said.
The victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Police caught Brewer after a chase. He has been arrested and faces multiple charges, including attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with Intent to kill inflicting serious injury, and battery of an unborn child.
The children that were in the home at the time of the incident are being cared for by family members. Another woman said she was horrified by the incident.
"I feel absolutely disgusted and horrid,” said the woman, who also didn’t want to be identified. “Because it's like, … any man hitting a woman, or any woman hitting a man, you shouldn't just be putting your hands on anybody. It's simple as that. If you're mad about something, just walk away."
The violence she has heard about or see in the complex has her considering a move, and she has urged people to cooperate with the police inquiry.
"Maybe it will make that person think a second time before they do something again because they realize, 'Oh, people are paying attention,’” she said.
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