Chainsaw Attack At Sertoma Park

I hope you’ll take a moment to browse this story over at America’s Favorite News Site. And since many people don’t click links…I’ll summarize it here :

Police say a man was arrested Friday after he cranked up a chain saw and chased two Clemson University students on a Frisbee golf course.

The students said they saw the man crouched over the chain saw on the course near Walhalla on Friday, when he suddenly turned on the chain saw and ran after them.

This is the suspect in the Sertoma Field Attack

Walhalla police said 37-year-old Jerry Lee Roach already was facing an aggravated assault and battery charge from May when he tried to use a chain saw to attack an Oconee County sheriff’s deputy.

An incident report said that during a bond hearing for the new charge, Roach became agitated. Police said Roach tried to physically intimidate the judge by standing over him and cursing, and then picking up a desk and shoving it toward him. An officer intervened and put Roach in a holding cell.

One of the Clemson students, who didn’t want to be named, said she first saw Roach with the chain saw on a fairway.

“It sounded like he had it revved up enough to be cutting down trees which I was thinking was kind of strange,” said the student. “The other person who was with me said we need to go right now and turned around and started running. Definitely my heart was racing. I was just scared because I didn’t know if he was coming at us to hurt us, or if he was just running with the chainsaw or what. I wasn’t going to stick around to find out.”

The students called 911 and a neighbor said she heard the call go out on her police scanner.

“[Police] were coming down about a white male chasing somebody with a chainsaw and Jerry [Roach] just had come through my front door, so automatically I knew it was him,” said neighbor Ciera Neal.

“I understand that, but at the same time the police department knows who he is. They shouldn’t have let him out in May, when he got arrested for the same thing,” said Neal.

The Clemson senior is just happy no one was hurt.

“I don’t want to be the cause that [Roach] has to spend the rest of his life in jail, but if you’re going to hurt someone, which could have possibly happened on Friday, he doesn’t need to be on the streets anymore,” said the student.

Roach is being held in the Oconee County jail on charges of first-degree assault and intimidation.

SOME ADDED NOTES :

Here’s the course, Sertoma Park, where it happened.  It’s a beautiful course and it’s always a shame when disc golf finds its way into the news for something so bizarre.

The first thing people will ask is what was this guy doing on the loose?  The last time he attacked someone with a chain saw (allegedly) he went after an Oconee County Deputy.  I have no doubt, as his acquaintance says above, that the man is mentally disturbed.  If that’s the case, I’m not sure he belongs in PRISON.  He does, however, belong in custody.

Finally, I don’t want to be too cold about all this, because people were genuinely afraid for their lives.  That isn’t even a little bit funny.  Still, given this is a sport in which we’re always trying to “rattle the chains” it seems likely to me there is a chainsaw-related hot stamped disc coming your way soon.