Beth Walton

bwalton@citizen-times.com

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LEICESTER - A jogger was attacked on Newfound Road just before 6 a.m. Monday near the Dix Creek community.

Buncombe County Sheriff''s Office responded to a 5:55 a.m call reporting an injured man lying on the side of the road.

The victim told deputies he was beaten during his morning run.

A vehicle passed him on the roadway, he said. The driver then turned around and occupants of the vehicle got out and attacked him, the Sheriff's Office reported.

The man was taken to Mission Hospital with serious, but non-life threatening injuries.

Laurie Paris said she stopped to help the man on her way to work at the nearby Kanagroo's Outback Post, a convenience store on Newfound Road.

The man was lying in a fetal position, Paris said. He had a string like the kind from a hoodie sweatshirt tied tightly around his neck, she said.

Other drivers also stopped to help and cut off the string, Paris said.

"There was impression around his neck," she said. "You could see where the cord was even several minutes after it was cut off."

Paris said the man told her his name and where he lived, but that he didn't remember much more about what happened.

He said he was left on the side of the road, but that he rolled into the middle so that passersby would stop to help, she said.

"He was shaking when deputies arrived," Paris said. "By the time the ambulance got there he was probably going into shock."

Paris hopes that someone witnessed the attack and will tell deputies what they saw.

"It makes me feel unsafe," she said. "I come to work at a very early hour in the morning and it's dark so it makes me feel unsafe."

Leicester resident Chad Nesbitt saw the crime scene around 6 a.m. when he stopped to visit his grandmother.

He is a member of the Leicester Crime Prevention Group and said the organization immediately started raising money for the victim.

Before 8 a.m. $500 was raised. “It is just terrible that we got people running around doing this stuff," he said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office at (828) 250-6670, or Asheville Buncombe Crime Stoppers at (828) 255-5050.