CINCINNATI — A Dayton police officer is suspended without pay pending allegations of dating assault, the police department said.
The Boone County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded to an apartment on Downey Drive just before 6:30 a.m. Wednesday for a dispute. A woman living at the apartment told deputies her boyfriend came home from a night out with friends and the two began arguing.
She said 32-year-old Ryan J. Fern grabbed her neck and with his hands on her throat pushed her away from the door. Deputies said the woman told them she fought back but she was unable to breathe.
The woman, Madison Horton, told WCPO she and Fern had fought about him being with an ex while he was out that night. After calling Horton repeatedly starting at 2 a.m., she said Fern came home around 5:30 a.m. with his ex, which re-ignited the fight.
"At that point, he came in here on our ledge over here and shoved everything off and just kept shoving anything he possibly could, shattering stuff all over the kitchen," she said. "I just sort of stood there and he was screaming and yelling. And he was like 'I don't want to work it out.' That's fine. You're leaving with her. It's done. He grabbed his vest and his duty belt and went outside. I locked the door."
But not long after, she said the door opened again and Fern returned, still shouting at her and calling her names. The pair continued to argue and Fern headed toward the door, as if to leave the home, Horton said.
"He was pretty much at our front door, I was a few feet behind him," she said. "And he turned around, he screamed something. Next thing I know, his hands are wrapped around my neck. I could feel the pressure of his hands on my neck. I had taken my fingernails and dug them into the upper part of his arm that I could grab to try to get him to release."
When deputies got to the apartment, Fern had already fled the scene. They did find damaged property and redness around the woman's neck. She was taken to St. Elizabeth Hospital where a forensic exam found evidence of strangulation.
The sheriff's office said deputies obtained an arrest warrant and Fern turned himself in Wednesday morning. He is charged with first-degree strangulation, fourth-degree assault dating violence and second-degree criminal mischief. He is being held at the Boone County Detention Center on a $250,000 cash bond.
Dayton police said Fern has been with the department since October 2022. He also serves as a military police officer with the Ohio Army National Guard. He has been suspended from the Dayton Police Department without pay.
WCPO reached out to Fern, but he was still incarcerated at the time and unable to respond.
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