Sheriff’s Office: Teenage girl punched in the face at Hilton Head plaza

A 17-year-old girl was hit in the face early Sunday by a man she at first suspected of flirting with her as she waited to pick up her mother at a Hilton Head Island plaza, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report.

The teenager called 911 after she was struck at Reilley’s Plaza on Greenwood Drive shortly after 2 a.m., the report said.

As she sat in a vehicle waiting on her mother, the teenager told a deputy that a man with an Asian accent approached the vehicle and spoke with her for about 10 minutes. The teenager suspected the man was flirting with her and told him that she was 17 and waiting to take her mother home.

“(The victim) then advised the male punched her on the left side of her face and left toward the back of the parking lot,” the report said.

She told the deputy that the man was wearing a black shirt with a white digital design on it at the time.

The deputy noted in the report that the teenager’s left cheek bone was swollen, but that the girl declined EMS treatment.

Surveillance cameras in the area were not active at the time of the assault.

This story was originally published August 1, 2017 at 12:50 PM with the headline "Sheriff’s Office: Teenage girl punched in the face at Hilton Head plaza."