 Give me Public Healthcare or I bite off your finger
An opponent of government healthcare programs had part of a finger bit off during a fight at a pro-healthcare-reform rally this week in Thousand Oaks.
William Rice, 65, of Newbury Park was with a small group of counter-protesters at a vigil Wednesday night organized by Moveon.org when a man bit off part of his left pinky finger during a scuffle, authorities said. Doctors were unable to reattach Rice’s finger.
Sheriff’s detectives Thursday were still looking for the man who bit Rice. Investigators also were sifting through conflicting accounts of the incident, but Rice acknowledged that he threw the first punch.
“When he got in my personal space, I popped him in the nose,” Rice said in a phone interview Thursday. “I felt like I had no choice other than to defend myself.”
The incident was reported at 7:26 p.m. Wednesday at Lynn Road and Hillcrest Drive, where more than 100 people gathered for the pro-healthcare-reform vigil.
About 15 people opposed to President Obama’s healthcare reform stood across the street from Moveon.org’s group. Members of Code Pink: Women for Peace also were there, authorities said.
Rice got involved in a heated discussion with a member of Code Pink, said sheriff’s Capt. Ross Bonfiglio, a department spokesman. After the argument, Rice returned to where his group was standing. An unidentified man then walked from Moveon.org’s area toward the opponents and verbally confronted Rice, allegedly calling him names and acting aggressively, Bonfiglio said.
Rice told investigators he felt threatened by the man and punched him in the nose, Bonfiglio said. A fight ensued, during which part of Rice’s finger was bitten off, Bonfiglio said.
Rice drove himself to Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. Another man found the bitten-off portion of the finger and took it to Rice at the hospital, Bonfiglio said.
Doctors told Rice the pinky, severed near the second knuckle, could not be reattached because of high bacteria levels from a human bite, he told the Ventura County Star.
Rice said he did not initially plan to participate in any demonstration Wednesday. He was driving by when he spotted Code Pink members, and he stopped to see if they were protesting the military, he said. Rice has a son who is an officer in the Marine Corps.
After a brief exchange with Code Pink members, Rice said, he was satisfied they were not protesting the military. He was leaving when a man who seemed “deranged” approached and called him an “idiot,” he said.
Rice said he felt like the man had singled him out because he was the “easiest target.” But the incident happened quickly, he said, and he doesn’t clearly remember everything that preceded the altercation.
Scott Bush, 43, of Thousand Oaks said he was standing with Rice in the group opposed to healthcare reform when the man walked over from the Moveon.org group. Bush said the man asked the group if it supported a public health insurer option, and members responded “no.” The man then singled out Rice and asked him why, according to Bush. When Rice responded that he didn’t want the government involved in anything, the man moved toward Rice and yelled, “You’re an idiot,” Bush said.
Bush said Rice then hit the man in a defensive move. The man then pulled Rice into the street, according to Bush.
After a fight that lasted only a few seconds, Bush said, he heard Rice say, “He bit my finger off,” and he saw a stump.
Several witnesses said Rice’s shirt was ripped during the scuffle.
Bush said he later found the roughly 1-inch piece of finger about 20 feet away and took it to Los Robles Hospital.
The suspect left before police arrived, authorities said. He was described as a short man with a medium build, wearing a blue cap, black shirt and black shorts.
Detectives were still trying to determine much about the incident, including whether the man intended to bite off Rice’s finger, sheriff’s Detective Eric Buschow said.
Rice said he thinks the man intended to harm him but not bite off his finger.
Authorities did not consider the man a criminal suspect Thursday and were not looking to arrest him, Buschow said. “We want him to come forward so we can talk to him. We want to hear his side,” Buschow said. “He’s part of the puzzle.”
The man did give an account of the incident to people at the Moveon.org gathering before he disappeared, said Joanie McClellan of Thousand Oaks, an organizer of the vigil. The man was visibly shaken, with his glasses askew and a lens missing, she said.
McClellan said no one at the gathering knew the man, who never gave his name and said he wasn’t on the Moveon.org list. McClellan, also involved with Code Pink in Ventura County, said she did not see the altercation.
The man told McClellan he was on his way to the healthcare vigil when Rice heckled and then hit him, she said. The man acknowledged he had bitten Rice’s finger, she said.
“We had asked him to go and sit on the grass so he could calm down, and I never saw him again,” she said.
Although he did not plan to protest Wednesday, Rice said, he’s opposed to government involvement in general, except for mail service and the military.
“It doesn’t have any business in anybody’s healthcare,” he said.
Rice acknowledged he used the Medicare he gets as a senior when he went to the hospital Wednesday. He said it was the first time he used the program, to which he remains adamantly opposed.
“If I had any other options, I would not have used it, even though I pay for it,” he said.
Emily Kryer, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Lois Capps, said the incident will not affect plans for a healthcare forum Friday night in Oxnard. The congresswoman will co-host a community information session at 6 p.m. at Bethel AME Church. Kryder said Oxnard police officers will provide security.
Anyone with information about the biting incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.  |
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