Details emerge in dispute between families
More details emerged Monday about a family dispute that spilled onto U.S. Highway 15 South on Sunday night and ended with a father and son behind bars and another man in critical condition in the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia, after being hit and dragged by a pickup truck.
Sumter County deputies filed charges against Joseph Lloyd Henderson Jr., 20, and Joseph Lloyd Henderson Sr., 43, on Sunday night. Henderson Jr. faces a count of attempted murder stemming from the vehicle incident, while the elder suspect was booked on a charge of third-degree assault and battery. Both men remained at Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center as of Monday morning, awaiting bond hearings.
Authorities said the incident involved two families embroiled in an ongoing feud with one another for several years. Braden Bunch, a spokesman for the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, indicated the feud seemingly stems from multiple reasons and noted the families apparently had restraining orders filed against one another at some point.
Sunday’s incident came from an encounter between the parties at a grocery store in the 1700 block of U.S. 15 South. A frenetic street melee reportedly involved gunfire, pepper spray and a metal pipe, and a 41-year-old Sumter man was airlifted to Augusta after a pickup truck ran him over and dragged him about 30 feet.
Bunch said both suspects were tentatively expected to appear for bond hearings at the Detention Center later Monday or today. Investigators said more charges likely will be brought forth in the case.
“Whenever you have an incident like this, where individuals on both sides have such a deep dislike for one another, there are going to be discrepancies in the stories,” Bunch said. “We are continuing to investigate all of the statements made to us and examine those discrepancies to determine if more charges need to be made.”
According to a sheriff’s office incident report, the fracas started at the grocery store on U.S. 15 South. Henderson Jr. and his brother, who had been shopping at the store, were in the parking lot outside when they spotted two females and a male from the rival family sitting in vehicles parked near their 1993 Chevrolet pickup truck. Henderson’s brother told deputies one of the women approached them and tried to use pepper spray on them. The two brothers then ran to their pickup and fled the grocery store parking lot, with the rival family following behind in another vehicle.
More family members on both sides became involved by the time the chase reached the convenience store in the 3100 block of U.S. 15 South, the report indicated. That’s when the victim and the elder suspect entered the fray, and chaos broke out in the parking lot of the store as the chase came to a stop. At one point, Henderson Sr. approached one of the women trailing his sons and said, “It’s been over a year and a half ago; let it go,” the report stated. One of the women then pepper sprayed Henderson Sr., and he punched her in the face, Henderson’s son told officers. The woman’s husband then began swinging a PVC pipe at the elder suspect, and a fight ensued between the two males.
Henderson Jr. said the woman brandishing the mace then approached him as he was sitting in his vehicle and fired a small handgun in his direction. The two other Hendersons pushed the victim to the ground and jumped back into the pickup when they heard the shot. As the men sped off attempting to flee the scene, they told officers the woman continued to fire shots at them. They indicated Henderson Jr. ran over the victim, who was still lying on the ground, as they made their getaway. The father said he told his son to stop the truck once they realized they’d run the victim over, and the trio began fleeing down U.S. 15 on foot. The men said the victim’s father-in-law fired several more shots at them as they ran down the highway.
Deputies also questioned one of the men in the crew pitted against the Hendersons. He admitted that he, his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s mother sat outside the grocery store waiting for the brothers to emerge from the store, and his girlfriend’s mother tried to spray them with pepper spray when they came out. He also admitted that they followed the brothers to the convenience store but told officers the victim was already lying on the ground by the time he arrived there. The man and the victim’s father-in-law then chased the three Henderson men to a nearby church, at which point officers descended upon the scene. Deputies had to detain the man, who threatened to kill the Henderson trio and tried to attack them with a metal pipe even after the officers’ arrival. Deputies recovered a .22-gauge pistol from the victim’s father-in-law when they encountered him at the church.