Ear is bitten off of guard working at troubled Columbus bus station

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A security guard at a troubled bus station on the West Side was injured Thursday after part of his ear was bitten off.

About 4 p.m., Columbus police were called to the bus terminal on North Wilson Road near Interstate 70 on reports of a disturbance. Upon arrival, officers found a security guard, who had a portion of his right ear bitten off.

The guard told police that a man was creating a disturbance with his family while carrying an open container of beer. When the security guard asked the man — later identified as 37-year-old Chance Harbor — several times to leave, Harbor refused and proceeded to finish his beer in front of the guard.

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Court documents report the guard attempted to remove Harbor physically, but the interaction turned physical and they wrestled each other to the ground. Harbor then allegedly bit the ear of the guard, who was taken, along with the removed portion of his ear, to Doctors Hospital.

Harbor reportedly fled to a nearby gas station, where he was arrested. Police said Harbor admitted he knew the man was a security guard, to drinking and to biting the ear.

Harbor also told police he felt threatened by the guard and an unidentified man who allegedly assisted the guard while holding a knife.

‘I bit him because I thought I was going to be stabbed,’ said Harbor, who then requested an attorney, according to the police report. He has been charged with felonious assault.

The incident is another in a long line of criminal activity that resulted in City Attorney Zach Klein declaring the terminal, a former gas station, a public nuisance last summer. In the first six weeks after the station relocated from Downtown, police responded to over 62 complaints, including 14 related to crime such as robbery, assault and shots fired.

In October, 26-year-old Jibril Kim was charged with killing a man at the bus station. Video surveillance showed Kim shooting the victim multiple times. He was issued a $2 million bond.

The City of Columbus issued an ultimatum on July 28, giving Barons Bus Incorporated, which owns the station, 20 days to comply after it found the terminal was operating without a certificate of occupancy or proper permits. Among other code violations found were improper permits for graphics, damage to the exterior of the building and operating more than two buses out of its location.

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Tensions boiled over during an October town hall meeting in which neighbors voiced emotional concerns and frustration. Residents took notice even earlier when they began expressing concerns over criminal activity, safety and sanitation at the terminal, which moved from Downtown after the Central Ohio Transit Authority purchased the former terminal at 111 E. Town St. for $9.5 million.

The legal process was delayed in December after Barons accused Mayor Andrew Ginther of having an improper conversation with Judge Stephanie Mingo, who then recused herself from the case. On Jan. 10, a retired judge from Circleville, Gary Dumm, was named visiting judge in the case against the bus terminal. He announced a trial date of March 4-6.

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