Police: Man high on mushrooms rips off part of penis

Tammy Stables Battaglia | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Police: Man on mushrooms rips own penis Police say a 41-year-old man is recovering after they say he ripped off part of his penis during a drug-fueled high.

Man was naked and screaming when found

He was visiting friends in Ypsilanti Township%2C Mich.

Police said he had been close to death from blood loss

DETROIT -- A 41-year-old Columbus, Ohio, man is recovering after police say he ripped off part of his penis on a drug-fueled high in Ypsilanti Township, Mich.

Washtenaw County Sheriff's deputies found the man naked and screaming after responding to a burglar alarm at Ypsilanti Middle School about 1 a.m. last Tuesday, Sgt. Geoff Fox said Monday.

The man was kneeling outside the school, bloody from the waist down, with parts of his genitals ripped off, Fox said. He said parts of the man's body were transferred to the hospital with him.

Officers subdued the man for his own safety and called for an ambulance.

"He really wasn't saying much at all — a lot of yelling and screaming," Fox said, adding the man had broken a window to the school but didn't take anything. "He wasn't making sense. They couldn't really communicate with him in terms of constructive conversation."

The man later told investigators he picked up hallucinogenic mushrooms earlier in the day while he was in town visiting friends in a neighborhood near the school. The man does not have a history of mental problems or extensive drug use, Fox said.

"We've sent his blood off for further analysis to see if there was anything else, if the mushrooms could have been laced with something," Fox said, adding that toxicology results are pending.

Medics first took the man to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Superior Township, Mich. WCSO spokesman Derrick Jackson said the man is currently being treated at University of Michigan Health System.

Fox said the man had been close to death.

"In terms of vital signs, they were as low as they could go without being dead, I could only assume due to the blood loss and the shock and trauma to the body," he said.

The man remains hospitalized Monday, still recovering from his injuries, Fox said. He declined to discuss details of his treatment.

Ypsilanti Township resident Brandon Simmons, 30, who often cuts through the middle-school yard while walking to and from his nearby apartment, said he was concerned about the man's recovery.

"I don't even know what to say — it sounds painful," Simmons said Monday. "Is he still alive? My prayers go out to him, and I hope he's going to make it. Wow?….I'm at a loss for words."