Police: Fugitive bids to hide identity, chews off fingertips

Tallmadge (US), Feb 27: Police say a fugitive from Tampa, Florida, who didn't want to be identified by his fingerprints during a traffic stop in northeast Ohio has chewed off his fingertips.

Kirk Kelly has been jailed on felony counts of evidence tampering and obstructing official business and misdemeanor charges of falsification and resisting arrest.

A message left for his attorney after business hours yesterday hasn't been returned. Police in Tallmadge, Ohio, say Kelly and several other people were put into a cruiser without handcuffs after their vehicle was stopped last weekend and officers thought they smelled drugs. Police say Kelly gave false names as they tried to identify him.

They say they figured out who he is after photos of his tattoos were provided by police in Florida, where he's wanted on firearms and drug charges.

AP