Man claims assault, shots fired at him on Hilton Head. Then says, maybe not

A man on Hilton Head Island called the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office early Wednesday morning to say he had been assaulted and shot at before changing his story several times, deputies say.

A deputy was dispatched to Wild Horse Road around 2:30 a.m. where he found the man who said he had been “jumped” by three men around 1:20 a.m. in the area of Cobia Court and Squire Pope Road, according to a Sheriff’s Office report.

The man described one of the alleged assailants as an African American male wearing a black bandana, the report said.

He then told the deputy he was able to fight off all three of his attackers without getting injured and no items were stolen.

He then ran to a friend’s house on Wild Horse Road where he saw a man walking down the road who had a similar voice as one of the assailants, the report said.

The man confronted the individual about the assault and the two began to argue, the report said.

At that time, the man said his suspected attacker “pulled out an unknown handgun and shot at him approximately two times,” the report said.

The man then ran for cover and hid behind a nearby vehicle until law enforcement arrived.

In the report, the man was said to be “very uncooperative” with the deputy and was “unwilling to complete a written statement or provide any further information pertaining to the incident.”

A nearby resident told the deputy that he did not hear gunshots and no evidence of bullet holes in the surrounding homes or vehicles was found, the report said.

The man also did not appear to have been involved in an assault since his clothes were clean and he was uninjured, the report said.

The report also said the man changed his story “several times and at one point advised that he was not assaulted” and appeared to be intoxicated.

Due to the lack of evidence, the deputy determined that no crime had taken place, the report said.

This story was originally published December 7, 2016 at 3:09 PM with the headline "Man claims assault, shots fired at him on Hilton Head. Then says, maybe not."