CHESTER COUNTY, S.C. — Joe and Libby Gaston are known by thousands who travel up and down Interstate 77 in South Carolina. They've owned Chester County's Front Porch Restaurant in the Richburg area for nearly 30 years.
On Monday, Channel 9 spoke to 80-year-old Joe Gaston. His face was swollen and covered with deep cuts and scratches, still bright red. Gaston was severely beaten inside his own restaurant late Sunday night, only minutes after it closed.
Chester County sheriff's deputies have arrested 55-year-old Dan McMullen of Great Falls, and charged him with assaulting the elderly couple.
"It was terrible. I mean I couldn't believe it. I felt like I was in a movie," said Stephanie Roberts, who works at the Front Porch.
Deputies said McMullen came to the side door of the business just after 9 p.m., saying he was lost and needed to find Rock Hill.
Libby and Joe Gaston let him come in out of the cold, and told him to sit in a foyer, outside of a second door that leads to the restaurant.
According to witnesses and deputies, McMullen was very drunk.
They asked him if there was anyone they could call for him, and he gave them the phone number of his wife so she could come get him.
Gaston said McMullen's wife asked them over the phone if he was drunk.
While he waited, Gaston said he become belligerent.
"He sat there a few minutes and then he started yelling and cursing," Joe Gaston said. He wanted to come into the restaurant.
"He kept yelling 'Why can't I come in? Why can't I come in?' it didn't make any sense," Roberts said.
Joe Gaston grabbed his pistol and he and his wife went back to where McMullen was waiting in the foyer. He pointed the gun at McMullen, cracked the door and told him to stay in there and calm down. Joe Gaston said McMullen forced open the door, knocking the couple to the ground, and the gun from his hand.
Libby Gaston broke her hip in the fall, and was screaming in pain.
Roberts said she saw McMullen on top of the 80-year-old, pounding him repeatedly in the face.
She joined in the fray.
"I grabbed the only thing I could think of. I grabbed the phone and started beating him in the head with the phone until he stopped hitting him," she said.
Mcmullen rolled off onto the floor and a kitchen employee grabbed Gaston's gun and held it to McMullen's head.
Sheriff's deputies arrived a few minutes later, and found McMullen still restrained on the floor.
Gaston's face was bloody. His wife was taken to CMC for hip replacement surgery on Monday morning. She'd just had her other hip replaced last June.
"She's doing OK. She's in good spirits. She's got a good doctor," Gaston said.
Roberts said the Gastons are friendly people who didn't deserve something like this.
"They just give away food. They give it to people in need. They've put people up in the hotels across the street. This was so wrong," she said.
Deputies don't believe McMullen intended to rob the business. He was unarmed, and seemed disoriented, according to eyewitnesses. Officers said they smelled a strong odor of alcohol on his breath.
McMullen is still in jail on $5,000 bond for each assault charge.
WSOC
