Editor’s note: This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

WKU Philanthropy major gift officer Mitchell Berman was charged with strangulation in the first degree and arrested on Wednesday, March 15.

According to the Bowling Green Police Department citation report, an officer responded to an EMS call, in which the EMS worker stated AshLeda Gingerich, the female in the ambulance, stated her boyfriend, Berman, choked her.

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Officers then responded to Greenview Hospital, where Berman went to wait for Gingerich. Berman stated in the report that “nothing physical happened between him and his girlfriend,” instead stating Gingerich experienced one of her usual PTSD “episodes.” 

The report states Berman called EMS after Gingerich did not come out of the episode and was having trouble breathing.

According to the report, officers spoke with Gingerich at Greenview Hospital, but she stated “it was not his fault, and he is a good person,” as well as that nothing happened and she did not want to speak with police.

The report also states that officers took Berman into custody after statements Gingerich made to the doctor, stating “it felt like he had kind of choked me or something.” Officers then questioned Gingerich again, but she stated “don’t do anything, don’t get him in trouble.”

Jace Lux, university spokesperson, stated via email that “the university is monitoring this situation” and customarily the university does not comment on personnel matters.

Gingerich contacted the Herald to release a statement on the arrest. She explained Berman called 911 after she could not breathe during a severe panic attack. Gingerich also said she contacted the officers who filed the citation report and explained that her PTSD caused her to say and react the way the report states she did.

“I would really like [people] to know that Mitchell was being a hero and actually saving my life, and now [he is] being looked at as a villain and that’s not it at all,” Gingerich said.  “I would be dead if he wouldn’t have called 911 and they wouldn’t have walked him through CPR […] I just really want his name to be cleared.”

Content editor Alexandria Anderson can be reached at [email protected].