A Villager diagnosed last year with dementia was arrested after an attack sent his wife to the hospital.
Wildwood police were called Saturday night to a home in the Village of Linden where the 73-year-old man was taken into custody as his 78-year-old wife was being loaded into an ambulance. She had suffered “multiple knots on her head and was bleeding from her head,” according to an arrest report from the Wildwood Police Department. It appeared the woman’s lower left arm was broken.
The man had been sleeping when he awoke and punched his wife in the face “multiple times.” He grabbed a metal lamp and began striking her in the face and head repeatedly. She was pleading with him to stop and used her left arm to try to block the blows from the lamp. She was able to break free and run to a neighbor’s house.
The man claimed he had been sleeping when he overheard his wife “and her new boyfriend” plotting to kill him.
The wife said her husband was diagnosed in April 2021 with dementia. She said he “has never acted like this.” She added he is a “very sweet man.” She also told police she does not have a boyfriend.
Her husband was taken to the UF Health-The Villages Hospital freestanding ER at Brownwood. After he was medically cleared, he was arrested on a felony charge of aggravated battery and booked at the Sumter County Detention Center.
