He offered to help her move from her Okatie apartment. Her ex-boyfriend didn’t like it

A man was treated and released from Coastal Carolina Hospital for facial fractures Friday night after he tried to help a friend move out of her house and was assaulted by her ex-boyfriend, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report.

The incident happened about 3:30 a.m. at a home on Park Side Way in University Park in Okatie, the report said.

The former couple — employees at a local restaurant who share an apartment — got into an argument during a text exchange hours earlier. The woman asked one of the restaurant’s regulars to go with her to get things out of the apartment, the report said.

The ex-boyfriend came home while she was collecting her stuff and they began to argue again, the report said. As the ex-boyfriend walked out of the door, he saw the friend, punched him in the left eye and pushed him to the ground, the report said. The ex-girlfriend hopped onto the ex-boyfriend’s back and pulled him off her friend, the report said.

When deputies interviewed the ex-boyfriend over the phone, he denied punching anyone but did say he and the friend “fell to the ground and began to wrestle,” the report said. The ex-boyfriend had already contacted his attorney and agreed to turn himself in on a second degree assault and battery charge, the report said.