- November 17, 2024
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Bunnell resident Henry Brock, 25, was walking east on Mahogany Boulevard from Hidden Trails Park Oct. 10 when a gold Honda Accord pulled up beside him and the car’s driver began yelling at him.
The man in the Accord, 53-year-old Bunnell resident James Donald Hays, told Brock he owed him $40 and “that if he would not pay him then he would have to rake his yard as payment,” according to a charging affidavit.
Brock, at first, didn’t know what Hays was talking about, he later told deputies, “but then advised that it was over something that had happened in the city of Bunnell,” and “would not explain further what had occurred regarding the $40,” according to the affidavit.
As Brock walked along Avocado Boulevard, Hays continued following in his car, then pulled over and got out.
Brock told deputies that Hays “began threatening to hit him if he did not pay the $40,” then got back in his car and “quickly accelerated towards him, attempting to run him over.” He missed Brock, but then “proceeded to back up and tried to strike H. Brock a second time with his vehicle.”
Again, he missed, according to the charging affidavit, but Brock told deputies that he’d “had to jump off the roadway and into the grass to avoid being struck.”
Hays then yelled, “This is my town and your (racial epithet) (profanity) needs to stay out,” Brock told deputies. Hays is white; Brock is black.
Two local residents saw the whole thing and corroborated Brock’s account, according to the affidavit.
Deputies found Hays at the Country Store on Mahogany Boulevard and interviewed him.
According to the charging affidavit, Hays “denied all of the accusation s and statements” made by Brock and the two witnesses. Most of his statements are redacted in the report. Hays was not arrested at that time, but Flagler County Judge David Walsh issued a capias for his arrest Oct. 27.
Deputies arrested him Nov. 12 at his Mahogany Boulevard home on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
