TDW reader Chelsey tipped us off to this doozy: Just after 1 a.m. Sunday in Surf City, NC, a U.S. Marine got into a dispute with a cab driver, Charles Hawkesworth; beat him to a pulp; and put him in the hospital with multiple fractures to his face.
The whole incident was caught on video (Not Safe For Work -- language, graphic violence), and the Marine has been identified as 30-year-old Gunnery Sgt. John Adam Kinosh.
But get this -- Kinosh won't be charged with a felony.
He checked himself into a psychiatric hospital following the attack, and Island Taxi owner Rex Bowen believes it is to avoid being served with warrants for misdemeanor assault inflicting serious injury, assault inflicting serious injury, and communicating threats. (Since Kinosh used only his fists, he can't be charged with felony-level offenses.)
Meanwhile, Hawkesworth is recuperating slowly and will require extensive surgery:
I have several facial fractures and it's from my sinuses to my eye socket to my cheek bones; it's a triangular area that has been broken off from the rest of my skull and they need to do reconstructive surgery and reattach that piece of my skull with 3 or 4 steel plates.
A Help Charles donation website has been established in anticipation of upcoming medical bills.
[thanks, chelsey!]