Machete-attack victim says he feared for life

It took more than a hundred stitches to mend the wounds.

The blade took a chunk out of his hair, sliced his face from his left ear to his jaw and shattered a bone in his left wrist.

The injuries were the work of an apparently mentally ill man with a machete who approached 18-year-old Eddie Ramsey and his friends without provocation Wednesday, Spokane police say.

“Maybe it was just the way I was looking at him, because he scared the hell out of us,” Ramsey said.

The suspect, Douglas W. Harmon, 49, was due in Spokane County Superior Court Thursday, but the appearance was rescheduled to today.

“Mr. Harmon is having some issues in the jail,” said Judge Ellen Kalama Clark.

Harmon is being held on two counts of first-degree assault, accused of hacking Ramsey with the machete during a confrontation outside Harmon’s apartment in the 200 block of W. Sixth Avenue, southeast of downtown Spokane.

Police used a Taser on Harmon after a short standoff. Hours earlier, a woman had found him in her car acting strangely, and neighbors called a mental health help line, the woman told local news stations.

Spokane Mental Health CEO David Panken said he couldn’t comment on a specific case but said callers are urged to call 911 if they see an immediate threat.

Ramsey and his girlfriend, Janelle Kay, a 17-year-old high school student, were sitting with two friends when Harmon approached about 10 a.m., Ramsey said.

Clutching the machete, Harmon asked the girl who “Nadine” was, then looked at Ramsey and called him the “mean one,” Kay said.

Harmon lunged at Ramsey, cutting his head and breaking his wrist, Ramsey said.

“I thought I was going to die,” Ramsey said.

“By the time I got down the street, my whole hand, I couldn’t feel it.”

Ramsey was released from Deaconess Medical Center late Wednesday with stitches, a cast and a left index finger that will require reconstructive surgery, he said.