Police: Riverhead man arrested after lighting girlfriend on fire
Ryan Osborne, 30, was arrested by Riverhead Town Police and charged with assault after he set fire to his girlfriend in Calverton on Wednesday, May 17, 2017, police said. Credit: Riverhead Town Police
Officers responding to a 911 call reporting a brush fire in a rural area of Calverton on Wednesday found a 33-year-old woman who had been set on fire by her boyfriend, Riverhead Town police said.
The woman, described as homeless, suffered burns to her face, hands and lower extremities after police said her attacker “poured an unknown accelerant” onto her body and the tent she was sleeping in along an area of Forge Road.
She was transported to Peconic Bay Medical Center and then to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment.
Her condition was unknown. The woman’s name is being withheld by Newsday because she is the victim of an alleged domestic assault.
Police said officers arrested Ryan Osborne, 30, of Forge Road. He was charged with second-degree assault, aggravated criminal contempt and fifth-degree arson and was scheduled for arraignment Thursday in Riverhead Town Justice Court.
Arraignment details were not immediately available.
Police said the 911 call was received at 8:44 p.m. and the victim “was able to extinguish the flames on her person, but not prior to incurring” the burns.
Police said that as a result of the attack a wooded area also caught fire and needed to be extinguished by firefighters from the Riverhead Fire Department.
Police said Osborne was arrested near the scene.
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
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