18-year-old pushes man’s head into sand and bites ear off in beach brawl, Florida cops say

An 18-year-old started calling another man racial slurs at a beach, then they got in a fight that ended with the 18-year-old biting the man’s ear off, according to witnesses and Florida deputies.

Jack Turner of Fort Myers is now charged with felony battery, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said. McClatchy News attempted to reach Turner for comment March 20 but did not immediately receive a response.

The brawl broke out on Fort Myers Beach on March 17 between two men who knew each other, according to the sheriff’s office.

A witness told deputies she was walking in a group with the victim when Turner started calling him racial slurs, deputies wrote in an arrest affidavit.

She asked the man if he “was just going to allow that to happen,” so the man squared up, and the two started fighting, according to the report.

A video shows the two grappling on the sand, then deputies said the victim ended up face down with Turner on the man’s back, punching him in the back of the head. Turner was seen grabbing the back of the victim’s head and pressing it into the sand before pulling it up and biting him, according to investigators.

Bystanders broke up the fight, and the witness said when the victim got up, she realized his ear “had been bitten off,” deputies wrote in the report.

A deputy conducting spring break patrol at the beach was flagged down, and Turner was arrested while the victim was hospitalized.

Turner bonded out of jail the next day, records show.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office didn’t disclose the victim’s age but clarified he wasn’t a juvenile.

Fort Myers Beach is about a 30-mile drive north from downtown Naples.