GOOSE CREEK (WCIV) -- Police say a woman walked outside of her home after hearing banging noises. What she found was a man badly beaten and bleeding excessively with his eye knocked out of its socket.
Investigators say he was hit in the face with a sledgehammer.
Ricardo Flores Perez, 32, has been charged with attempted murder in the incident that took place on Sunday.
Witnesses told police that a man matching the description of Perez had followed the victim home. The two had reportedly met at a gas station and decided to share a few beers.
Police investigators say as the two men stood in the driveway drinking and talking something went wrong.
Residents of the home ran outside after hearing a loud banging sound. They reportedly got outside in time to see the suspect driving away at a high rate of speed and to find the victim badly beaten behind a pickup truck.
According to an incident report, minutes later, a van matching the description of the white full size van driven by the suspect was spotted a stop sign on Wisteria Road. An officer in the area said he spotted the van not only at the stop sign but driving on the wrong side of the road.
The officer said he stopped the van, where he said he found Perez in the driver's seat with blood splattered on his face, t-shirt and baseball cap. The officer said he could also see an open can of Coors Light in the console.
Perez was reportedly handcuffed and placed in the officer's car while the van was searched. Inside, the officer said he found a blood-stained sledgehammer with a yellow shaft.
Perez has been charged with attempted murder, driving without a license and open container.
(This report courtesy WCIV.)
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