Donna Swicegood, Statesville, April 17, 2015

A trip to the store turned into a nightmare for Joshua Murdock on Monday night.

The Statesville man was pummeled by anywhere from six to eight assailants–an assault that put him in the Intensive Care Unit at Davis Regional Medical Center for two days.

According to Murdock, he rode his son’s scooter to a store on Newton drive on Monday, and as he was leaving, noticed a group of 15 to 20 young men in the parking lot.

“One of them asked me if he could ride the scooter,” Murdock said.

He told the man no and continued on his way home, crossing the street and riding down Park Drive. Murdock said he was about a tenth of a mile down Park Drive when he felt something hit him in the back.

“The next thing I know I was getting jumped on by eight or 10 of them,” he said.

Murdock said he was kicked and punched and believes he was hit in the back with a stick.

“My fiancée said the marks look like (they were caused by) a stick,” he said Thursday from his room at Davis.

He said he saw one of the men he spotted at the store carrying a chain, and he may have been struck with that as well.

“I balled up,” Murdock said. “I was defenseless since there were so many of them.”

The assailants scattered after a car drive toward the group, Murdock said. Before departing, however, they robbed him of his cash, about $35. He said the only reason his son’s scooter wasn’t taken is because he fell on it as he was knocked down by the first blow.

The man who dispersed the assault asked Murdock if he was injured and offered him a ride home–an offer Murdock accepted. {snip}

“If it hadn’t been for him, they probably wouldn’t have stopped until I was dead,” he said.

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He called an ambulance and was taken to the hospital where doctors found a broken rib punctured his lung and caused it to collapse.

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Murdock said he’s lived in the area where the assault occurred for about three years and never feared for his or his family’s safety until now.

“I’m very worried,” he said.

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[Editor’s Note: This story notes that the victim described the perps as 10 black males between the ages of 16 and 20.]