Senior Citizen Accused Of Beating Up Octogenarian

A 65-year-old Madison man was arrested over the weekend after he punched an 81-year-old neighbor several times, police said.

Andrew F. Ketterer was arrested on a charge of substantial battery, according to a Madison Police Department incident report.

The incident happened just after 10 a.m. on Saturday in the 700 block of Struck Street.

According to police, Ketterer passed his 81-year-old neighbor when he pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex Saturday. Ketterer claims the octogenarian reached out with his left elbow and took a swipe at his driver-side mirror, damaging it, as he drove by.

The 81-year-old claims his younger neighbor actually swerved at him causing his mirror contact, police said.

Police said a witness reported looking out a window and seeing Ketterer on top of, and punching, the 81-year-old.

Greentree Glen Senior Apartments resident Dorothy Carter said she heard her 81-year-old neighbor’s cries for help Saturday morning when he was being beaten outside his home.

“All of a sudden, I heard, ‘Help! Help!’ And it was really loud,” Carter said. “I couldn’t believe it. (There was) blood coming from his mouth and his nose, and he was just a bloody mess.”

The 81-year-old man suffered a cut finger and a cut above an eye, police said.

Madison police said the men live in the same apartment building and have had many past disputes. But residents of the apartment complex claimed that Ketterer is a bully who has been hostile toward them for years.

“People here are quite fearful that he’s back in the building,” resident Carol Grogan said.

Both Grogan and Carter said they’re representing many who are too afraid to speak publicly because of retaliation. While the residents said they’ve had problems with their management company for a while, they said this is the last straw and they can’t explain why Ketterer is still living in their building.

“We’re here to look out after each other,” Carter said. “We should anyway. We should be concerned about one another.”

But now the concern has grown. Some residents said they’re moving out and others are now carrying pepper spray for protection. Neighbors said they’re worried that they have no idea what could come next.

“He was full of rage,” Grogan said. “He wanted to kill the guy.”