Burnsville Man Charged With Strangling SLP Girlfriend

Friday afternoon, Hennepin County attorneys filed domestic assault charges against a Burnsville man for allegedly trying to strangle his girlfriend, a St. Louis Park resident.

According to the criminal complaint, Roy Depaul Crawford, Jr.'s girlfriend called police to her apartment on the 8300 block of West 30th 1/2 Street on Feb. 14. The woman was "distraught and missing a chunk of her own hair," the criminal complaint says.

She told officers her boyfriend had been trying to leave the apartment with her car keys following an argument between the two. The argument quickly resumed and became physical.

Crawford allegedly pulled his girlfriend's shirt over her face and punched her several times. He then grabbed the woman's neck and began choking her, to the point that the victim said she began having difficulty breathing.

When St. Louis Park police caught up with Crawford, he gave up the woman's keys and admitted he had choked her. According to the criminal complaint, he disputed that he had used enough force to impair his girlfriend's breathing. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, Crawford remains in custody in the County Sheriff's jail in downtown Minneapolis on $20,000 bail, and faces one charge of Domestic Assault by Strangulation. The charge carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.