At least four motorists witnessed a man severely beating a woman in a vehicle as it drove across Greenwood earlier this month, and they called police because her face was covered in blood and the vehicle was nearly wrecking.
Eric G. Drouillard, 26, Indianapolis, has been charged with four felonies after the incident earlier this month. The multiple 911 calls from passers-by is what helped police finding him and get medical care for the victim, a woman he had been in a relationship with, according to court documents.
Drouillard has been charged with domestic battery resulting in serious bodily injury, criminal confinement, possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon and being a habitual offender, all felonies, and a misdemeanor charge of criminal recklessness.
Police got to the woman he was beating when he caused a crash. She had severe injuries to her head and face, two black eyes and a large wound on her forehead, police said. The injuries were not caused in the crash, they said.
Hospital tests showed she had several fractures to her nose and the orbital areas of both eyes, and a deep cut to the head, court documents said.
The incident happened the morning of March 3, when a person saw a man in a car near the Greenwood Park Mall hitting a woman in the head repeatedly, and called 911. As police tried to find the vehicle, another call came in describing the same beating, and the witness said the woman’s face was covered in blood. A third 911 caller reported witnessing the same, and told police the car was driving east on County Line Road, court documents said.
Police couldn’t find the car, but 15 minutes later, a fourth 911 caller said that a woman was trying to get out of a vehicle on Smith Valley Road near Averitt Road, but the driver would not let her out.
Officers began searching that area when an accident was reported at State Road 135 and Smokey Row Road. Drouillard, the driver, had ran a red light and hit another vehicle, court documents said.
Greenwood police talked to each of the witnesses who called 911, and they told officers that the vehicle Drouillard was driving nearly hit other cars several times and was swerving, the woman was crying and bleeding and the man was hitting her repeatedly, on the head, in the flank and “everywhere,” as one witness said.
One witness saw Drouillard grab her by the throat and shove her down. Another driver told police that he made eye contact with the woman as they passed by, and her face was covered in blood.
Another witness said the driver hit her at least 15 times while stopped at one stop light. He had tried to help the woman when the vehicle stopped, but it quickly sped off, he told police.
Another witness said that the woman had tried to get out of the vehicle, but Drouillard wouldn’t let her, the report said.
The woman was taken to Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital. She told police that the two had gotten into an argument while she was driving him to work, and when she got out, he began to take her vehicle. She got back in to keep him from taking her car, court documents said.
Drouillard has prior criminal convictions for dealing drugs and burglary, court records said.
Drouillard, of 4905 W. Mecca St., was arrested and taken to the Johnson County jail. He is being held on $10,000 bond.
