Doctors can't reattach ear in Wash. hacking attack

[December 16, 2011]  SEATTLE (AP) -- Doctors were unable to reattach a Washington state security guard's ear after a shoplifter attacked him with a hatchet, his brother said Thursday.

Police in the southwest Washington city of Longview arrested Adrian Kramer, 31, and booked him in county jail on Wednesday for investigation of assault, robbery, burglary and theft after the attack at a Fred Meyer retail store.

When David Morrison, 33, the head of security at the store, tried to stop Kramer on Monday, Kramer swung a small hatchet at Morrison and sliced off his left ear, authorities said.

Kramer then fled, but acting on a tip, Longview Police officers arrested Kramer in nearby Kelso, said Capt. Robert Huhta.

David Morrison's brother, Steven, said doctors in a Portland, Ore., hospital weren't able to reattach the ear after hours of surgery. He said his brother is weighing his medical options now, including a prosthetic ear.

"There's a lot of shock and a lot of denial," said Steven Morrison. "I can tell you he's happy the guy who committed the crime was apprehended and nobody else was injured as a result of a violent behavior."

Steven Morrison said his brother is an Army veteran who had become the head of security at the store in 2010. He's married with four children.

He's "looking for closure and time to heal," Morrison said, later adding that his brother had expected people to use weapons in his line of work, but he "never expected it to be a hatchet."

Kramer's bail was set at $250,000 on Thursday.

[Associated Press; By MANUEL VALDES]

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