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POLKTON — The evening of July 21, Anson County Sherffi’s Office Deputy Wylder Kuhn received a call from dispatch services alerting him to a domestic disturbance unfolding at a residence on Thomas Road.
While en route to the location, dispatch advised Deputy Kuhn that the victim, Thomas Edwards, Sr., was being assaulted by his 28 year-old son Thomas Edwards Jr.
When Deputy Wylder Kuhn arrived, the assailant’s mother and wife of the victim, Amy Edwards, greeted him at the front door. Shortly after entering the house, Deputy Kuhn located the beaten and bloodied victim on the floor of his home with his son standing over him. Surveying the scene before him, Deputy Kuhn observed Thomas Sr. “clutching his left forearm with a white cloth overtop.”
The victim appeared obviously, and according to Kuhn’s report, signs of what looked to be early bruising [already] forming on the victim’s head, as well as his face.
Both victim and suspect verbally confirmed to Deputy Kuhn a physical altercation occurred between them, its aftermath reflected in damages to household items and extensive blood trails spread throughout the residence. Father and son agreed Thomas Sr. received a severe laceration on his arm when “the victim was pushed into a china shelf.”
With this admission, Deputy Wylder Kuhn had heard all he needed, and placed Thomas Jr. in handcuffs.
EMS arrived on scene as the suspect was being secured into the back of Kuhn’s patrol car.
As EMS cared for the victim, deputies continued their investigation, photographing the victim’s injuries, blood spatter, and damage to the residence caused by the altercation, in addition to collecting evidence in the event of a future court case.
In Kuhn’s report, he stated the argument began because his father would not accept that he was a homosexual. After a back and forth discussion grew more heated, the suspect claims his father began attacking him. Going back inside to hear from the only witness to the family fracas, Amy Edwards, Deputy Kuhn asked her to explain what had occurred.
Amy described confronting her son earlier in the day regarding her son’s “harassing one of his friends.” The friend confided to Amy that her son was harassing them through incessant phone calls and requested that she intervene.
When Amy went to her son’s home to confront him about the phone calls, he “began screaming and freaking out.”
Returning home, Amy went directly to her husband and told him what happened when she confronted their son about his behavior.
Several hours later, Thomas Jr. called his father, asking to be allowed inside his parents’ home. As Thomas Sr. spoke with his son through his cracked open front door, “the offender forced his way into the house,” beginning his violent assault. Deputy Wylder Kuhn noted “damage to the door frame caused by their son’s forced entry.”
Kuhn further stated, during this physical altercation, the victim told me that the offender threatened both him and his wife. The victim and the witness (Amy) stated to Kuhn that their son threatened, “I’m going to kill you if you call the police ” before proceeding to beat his father with a menagerie of household items.
After hearing from all parties involved, Deputy Wylder Kuhn transported Thomas Jr. to the Magistrate’s Office.Magistrate Brewer found probable cause and issued warrants on Thomas Jr. for felony breaking and entering, felony assault causing bodily injury, damage to personal property and communicating threats.
Following his visit with Magistrate Brewer, Thomas Jr. was placed in the Anson County Jail under a $25,000 bond. Thomas Jr. is scheduled to appear in the Anson County Judicial Center on August 26.
Meanwhile, Sgt. Mario El Kobersy was alerted that a traffic accident involving Deputy Leak, who had also been present at the scene with Deputy Kuhn, had just occurred at Thomas Road, close to the intersection with Hwy. 74.
In Leak’s haste to arrive at the Magistrate’s Office in time to offer Deputy Kuhn assistance with the suspect, Deputy Leak fell prey to the torrential rain enveloping the area.
Hitting a deceptively deep water puddle in the roadway, Leak “lost control of the vehicle” which then skidded off the road into an embankment. She crashed through several small trees and thick brush, ultimately becoming mired in the mud of a flooded cornfield.
Uninjured, Deputy Leak’s patrol car did not fare as well, suffering “damage to the vehicle on the passenger side, the front, and possibly some on the undercarriage of the vehicle.”
Notified of the accident, Capt. Williams, Capt. Beam, and Chief Mims’ hurried to the scene. Due to the extent of the damage, Leak’s patrol car was transferred via Mims’ Towing Services to law enforcement’s secure facility.
