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Augusta Dad Fights Off Attacker in Front of 2-Year-Old Daughter

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An Augusta father is telling his brave story of fighting off a man who attacked him Saturday at Family Dollar while shopping for diapers with his 2-year-old daughter.

(For more crime news, pick up this week’s Jail Report. Cover: http://bit.ly/1MU6g6O)

Joel CarpenterJoel Carpenter (shown at right with daughter) was shopping for some pull-up diapers at the Walton Way store when suspect Tokie Harris (pictured in mugshot) was having a dispute with a cashier.

“The guy didn’t want to give the cashier his money. I asked him to hurry up. I had places to go,” Carpenter said. “The assistant manager there told him to leave and never come back. He started getting hostile with me and as I left to go out to my car with my daughter, he approached me and came into arm’s length of me while I was holding my daughter.”

Friends of the suspect grabbed him and told him to leave Carpenter alone several times.

“I told him to leave me alone and go away several times. As I was putting my daughter into her car seat, the man ran up right beside me and sucker punched me while I was inside my vehicle,” Carpenter said. “After that I smashed his head into the pavement, split his forehead open. I believe I busted his nose and his mouth.”

Soon after, deputies arrived and arrested Harris, but not before taking him to the hospital for stitches. Harris, 42, of Walters Court, was charged with disorderly conduct.

“He should’ve listened to my warnings to leave me and my 2 year old daughter alone,” Carpenter said, adding that there was about 15 eyewitnesses plus video footage.

Harris is a repeat offender with a history of arrests, including previous charges of burglary, theft and traffic charges.

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Greg Rickabaugh
Greg Rickabaugh
Greg Rickabaugh is an award-winning crime reporter in the Augusta-Aiken area with experience writing for The Augusta Chronicle, The Augusta Press and serving as publisher of The Jail Report. Rickabaugh is a 1994 graduate of the University of South Carolina and has appeared on several crime documentaries on the Investigation Discovery channel.
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