‘Mob attack’ at Circle K leaves Hilton Head man bloodied and disfigured, ‘football kick’ used

A trip to a Hilton Head Island gas station ended in a bloody beating when a cyclist was attacked by two men outside a Circle K on Labor Day weekend. The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office is searching for two men involved in a “mob attack” that ended only after a good Samaritan stepped in for a cigarette.

A Beaufort County sheriff’s deputy responded to the Circle K store on Lagoon Road, a quarter-mile from Coligny Beach Park, at about 9 p.m. Friday. They found a 45-year-old Islander whose face was reportedly disfigured, “covered in blood” and already swollen. The officer noted that “there was too much blood on his face to determine where it came from,” but was able to see an approximately 1-inch gash near the man’s right eye.

The man told police he was riding his bike in front of a gas station when two men approached him. One grabbed the bike and said, “I just want to talk to you,” while the other repeated the question, “Remember me?” in a raised voice, according to a sheriff’s office incident report.

One of the men punched the cyclist, knocking him to the ground in front of the store, he told police. The pair began punching and kicking him.

A witness who was entering the convenience store to buy cigarettes told a deputy he saw the victim being attacked by two white men, one of whom knocked him to the ground and the other punched him and “kicked a football” in the face. He tried to yell at the men to stop but ultimately had to pull the primary aggressor away to end the assault, the report said.

Surveillance footage from the Circle K confirmed the victim’s and witness’s account of the incident. The footage showed two suspects exiting a red Ford SUV and “briefly gathering” before driving away and then returning on foot to attack the man. After the man was knocked to the ground, one of the assailants punched him several times before delivering three “intentional kicks” to the head, the deputy wrote.

The victim told police the attack was likely prompted by a “joke or comment” he made to one of the suspects’ romantic partners about eight months ago. He reportedly hadn’t seen the man until that night.

Paramedics at the scene said the victim would likely need several stitches, but he declined to be taken to hospital.

Both the victim and a witness positively identified one of the suspects, although the man has not been publicly named by police. Investigators later obtained an arrest warrant for second-degree assault and battery by mob, a charge used when a group of two or more people inflicts “serious bodily injury” on another person.

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office had not yet identified the second suspect, according to spokesman Sergeant Danny Allen. Neither man had been arrested as of Thursday afternoon.