Deputies had their work cut out for them sorting out the complicated backstory behind a wild brawl in the Walmart parking lot involving allegations of car theft, a Scioto County fugitive, a stabbing, and a multi-state violation of a protection order.
It all started when deputies responded to a domestic incident at the South Point Walmart. Witnesses said a man and woman were fighting in the parking lot beside a Lexus.
When officers arrived at the scene, they found the couple was still arguing and would not stop. They decided to cuff both parties and put them in the back of separate cruisers to get the real story.
The woman told officers she’d reported the car stolen from a Bowling Green, Kentucky, auto dealership after the man drove off with it shortly after she bought it. She said police there said it was a civil matter and wouldn’t list the car as stolen. She managed to get a ride to Ohio and found the man at the Walmart.
She claimed the man was circling her with the car and taunting her and that he was purposely trying to blow the car’s engine. She said she caught up with him on a bicycle and jumped into the car. That’s when the pair began to fight and eventually crashed into a light post.
The man told officers the woman stabbed him with scissors during the fight. Officers saw the cut on his shoulder but didn’t find any scissors nearby.
Witnesses said that when the woman tried to drive off after the argument, the man jumped on the hood of the car, and the woman tried to drive away with him on it.
Officers contacted the car dealership in Kentucky. Employees said the woman purchased the car, but the man paid the down payment before driving off with the dealership tag still on the vehicle. The dealership asked officers to please mail the tag back.
Officers discovered that the man, Justin Hargis, had five open warrants from agencies like the Scioto County Sheriff’s Department, Coal Grove Police, and South Point Police on matters unrelated to the theft.
They learned that the man had a protection order against the woman in Tennessee issued in February. She was arrested last week for violating that order in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Officers had the vehicle towed and let the dealership know where they could find it. They arrested both Hargis and Kimberly McCann for domestic violence.
