Police: Men meet on Grindr, beat each other up in New Kensington

Two men who met on the dating app Grindr face assault charges after they got into a fistfight and bit each other after hooking up at one of the men’s houses, according to a criminal complaint.

New Kensington police charged Ryan Christopher Grabigel, 40, of New Kensington with aggravated assault and Dustin Lee Cramer, 30, of Pittsburgh with simple assault in connection with the Dec. 11 incident. Police filed the charges Tuesday.

Grabigel is free on $25,000 unsecured bond while awaiting a Feb. 8 preliminary hearing before District Judge Jason Buczak in Washington Township. Online court records for Cramer hadn’t been updated as of Wednesday afternoon.

City police said they were called to Grabigel’s Edgewood Road home about 1 p.m. Dec. 11 for a reported assault. When officers arrived, they found Cramer lying on his back covered in blood. He was unresponsive but breathing, police said. Paramedics took him to Forbes Hospital in Monroeville.

Police said Grabigel was covered in blood when he answered the door, and the home’s kitchen floor also had fresh blood on it. Grabigel denied medical treatment.

Investigators spoke with Cramer at the hospital the following day and learned he was scheduled to have surgery on Dec. 13 for fractures to his face. Cramer also received stitches on his ear.

Cramer told police he started chatting with Grabigel through Grindr while he was at a party in New Kensington. He said Grabigel came to the party between midnight and 2 a.m., and the two went to Grabigel’s house.

While they were in bed, Cramer said Grabigel began hitting him in the face. The men began arguing and then Grabigel hit Cramer in the head and struck him with an object similar to a rolling pin before slamming him to the ground, holding him down and biting his ear, Cramer told investigators. Cramer told police he bit Grabigel’s hand in retaliation, the complaint said.

Cramer told police Grabigel beat him until he blacked out and police were there when he woke up, the complaint said.

Grabigel painted a different picture, according to the complaint. He told police that after Cramer became rough with him and bit his arm, he asked Cramer to leave and a fight ensued. Grabigel said Cramer put him in a headlock and punched him in the face multiple times, and the men struck each other with a dolly and bit each other, the complaint said.

On Dec. 16, city police charged Grabigel with aggravated assault after they said he struck a woman with a hammer and threatened to kill her. Both alleged incidents happened in Grabigel’s New Kensington home.

New Kensington District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. recused himself from both cases because he is related to Grabigel. Both cases were transferred to Buczak, according to Christopher Haidze, special courts administrator for Westmoreland County.