Circle K ‘mob attack’ leaves Hilton Head man bloodied and disfigured. ‘Soccer kick’ used

A visit to a gas station on Hilton Head Island ended in a bloody brawl after a bicyclist was attacked by two men outside a Circle K over Labor Day weekend. The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office is searching for two men involved in the “mob attack” that only ended after the intervention of a Good Samaritan who was trying to get cigarettes.

A Beaufort County officer arrived at the Circle K convenience store on Lagoon Road, a quarter-mile from Coligny Beach Park, around 9 p.m. Friday. There they found a 45-year-old islander whose face was reportedly disfigured, “covered in blood” and already swollen. The officer noted that there was “too much blood on his face to determine where it all came from,” but was able to spot a cut about one inch long near the man’s right eye.

The man told police he was pushing his bike in front of the gas station when two men approached him. One grabbed his bike and said, “I just want to talk to you,” while the other repeated the question in a raised voice, “Do you remember me?”, according to a sheriff’s office incident report.

One of the men hit the cyclist and threw him to the ground outside the store, he told police. The pair began punching and kicking him.

A witness who entered the supermarket to buy cigarettes told the officer he saw the victim being attacked by two white men, with one shoving him to the ground and the other punching him and giving him a “football kick” to the face. He tried to yell at the men to stop, but eventually had to pull the main aggressor away to stop the attack, the report said.

Surveillance footage from Circle K cameras confirmed the victim and witness’ version of events. The video showed the two suspects exiting a red Ford SUV and gathering in the parking lot “for a short time” before driving away and later returning on foot to attack the man. After the man was pushed to the ground, one of the attackers was seen punching him multiple times before delivering three “intentional forceful kicks” to the head, the officer wrote.

The victim told police the attack was likely sparked by a “joke or comment” he made to one of the suspects’ partners about eight months ago. He reportedly had not seen the man again until that night.

Emergency responders at the scene said the victim would likely require multiple stitches but refused to be taken to the hospital.

Both the victim and the witness positively identified one of the suspects, although the man was not publicly named by police. Investigators later obtained an arrest warrant for second-degree assault by mob, a charge that is brought when a group of two or more people inflicts “great bodily injury” on another person.

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office had not yet identified the second suspect, said spokesman Master Sgt. Danny Allen. Neither man had been arrested as of Thursday afternoon.