Anti-steroid crusaders will do anything they can to demonize anabolic steroids and steroid users in general. So whenever a bodybuilder is caught behaving badly and/or exhibiting aggressive or violent behavior, these actions are highlighted as “proof” of the dangerous side effects of steroids.
Paul Bashi, a national-level competitive amateur bodybuilder who competed in contests sanctioned by the National Physique Committee (NPC), recently became the anti-steroid crusaders’ prime exhibit in support of the so-called phenomena of “roid rage”. Bashi is currently sitting in jail after allegedly torturing and trying to stab his girlfriend to death.
On July 29, 2018, Bashi was arrested after deputies with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) responded to reports of a domestic assault. The perpetrator was identified as Bashi and the victim identified as his girlfriend.
“It was really extreme,” according to a neighbor named Derrick Williams. “I mean, she was physically unable to get up off the porch. One of my other neighbors called and said, ‘Hey, they had another fight. He ran off. She’s sitting on the porch.’
“She was just sprawled across the porch, not able to move, bloody, groaning and stuff.”
Bashi was found wandering around the neighborhood covered in blood. Bashi’s girlfriend was bleeding profusely with multiple puncture wounds to her head and torso. She was lying on the front porch of a house she shared with Bashi in Washington Township, Michigan.
The current status of Bashi’s girlfriend has not been publicly released. A preliminary investigation indicated that she had dozens of stab wounds all over her body that were allegedly inflicted by Bashi using multiple knives over an extended period of time preceding the attempted murder.
Assistant Macomb County Prosecutor William Dailey described the beating, as seen on surveillance video from a neighbor’s security camera, as “disturbing”.
“I have never seen injuries to a person inflicted the way Mr. Bashi did to another human being who lived,” Dailey said. “It’s disturbing to talk about, to watch. Those stab wounds were partly inflicted at different times during the assault with different weapons, different knives. It was going to be a slow death.”
A search of Bashi’s house led to the seizure of controlled substances. One of the drugs was identified as Jintropin brand human growth hormone (hGH).
Bashi was charged with one count of assault with intent to murder (attempted murder), one count of torture, and one count of delivery and/or manufacture of a Controlled Substance in 42-1 Romeo District Court following his arrest last month.
The 35-year old NPC bodybuilder was booked at the Macomb County Jail and held on $5 million dollar bond with no ten percent deposit permitted. Bashi’s lawyer unsuccessfully attempted to convince a Magistrate Jennifer Andary to reduce the bond to $750,000. Bashi was unable to post bond and remains in jail to this day.
Bashi faces life in prison if convicted on the attempted murder charge.