CHARLOTTE — Two men have been charged after a bizarre altercation in uptown Charlotte, police said.
A man who is homeless chased someone and attacked him with a shovel over the weekend and it was all caught on video.
The man who was chased, who did not want to be identified, said the other man was harassing two women walking on the sidewalk near Ri Ra Irish Pub on North Tryon Street.
“I just happened to be walking by,” he said. “I kind of just stepped in to tell the women to go about their business. The man became hostile with me.”
He said the hostility turned into violence when the man started grabbing whatever he could use as a weapon.
“First, he picked up a street sign that he swung at me, then a board and then a shovel,” he said.
“And then the homeless guy picked up a shovel and started smacking him with it,” said Jonathan Murphy, a manager at the pub.
“Eventually, I came out and said, ‘Get into the pub.’ So I locked him in the pub and the homeless guy ran away.”
Police identified the man with the shovel as Lazonte Moore, 27, who has been arrested eight times in the last three years. Most of the arrests were for alleged assaults, including an attack on a paramedic, according to court records.
Most of the charges have been dismissed.
Police said the video doesn't tell the whole story of what happened Saturday.
They said the man who was running from the shovel-wielding man threw the first punch. Both face misdemeanor charges.
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