Flying fists, hot asphalt leaves May River construction worker with 1st-degree burns

A construction worker suffered first-degree burns Tuesday on May River Road after he and another man allegedly fought off a an attacker while working.

The incident was reported around 12 p.m. after one of the workers called 911 to report that two of his co-workers had been attacked, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report.

One of the victims told a deputy that he had been working on paving the parking lot at Dollar General when a man walked up to him and attempted to pull him away from a piece of machinery and “punch him in the face,” the report said.

The worker said he defended himself by engaging in a fist fight with the man and they punched each other “numerous times in the face.”

The worker said he and the man had an argument earlier in the day and were prevented from a physical fight by another employee.

Another worker at the construction site reported a similar incident.

He told a deputy that the man also walked up to him, asked him what his name was and proceeded to punch him in the face.

Like his co-worker, the man also punched the alleged assailant and “threw him to the ground, which was covered in freshly poured, very hot, asphalt.”

The assailant then grabbed the second worker by the shirt and pulled him to the ground. The two wrestled, which caused the worker to suffer burns to his arms on the hot asphalt, the report said.

A deputy noted in the report that the first worker was not injured and that the second worker’s wounds had been treated and dressed for apparent first-degree burns.

The alleged assailant had left by the time law enforcement arrived. One of the workers identified who he believed the man was, but that person was not able to be contacted by deputies. No charges were listed in the report, but the deputy noted that he would speak with a judge about an arrest warrant.

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 1:03 PM with the headline "Flying fists, hot asphalt leaves May River construction worker with 1st-degree burns."