photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

Shaun Donovan Bernie, in a prison photo from 2014.

A 33-year-old homeless shelter resident was charged Tuesday with aggravated battery, a felony, after allegedly beating a man in the face with a wooden stick in downtown Lawrence.

Lawrence police officers, in a social media post, said they found a man with significant facial injuries near Eighth and Massachusetts streets Monday night. The injured man said he knew the suspect. The incident occurred after 11:30 p.m. The suspect, later identified as Shaun Donovan Bernie, whose address is listed as the Lawrence Community Shelter, had already left the area when officers arrived, police said. An officer found Bernie in Burroughs Creek Park around 2:30 a.m. and took him into custody.

Bernie has multiple felony convictions, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections, including for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Douglas County in 2023 and theft and burglary in Franklin County in 2010.