By Laurel Mallory | March 20, 2021 at 5:43 PM EDT – Updated March 21 at 10:34 AM
LEXINGTON, S.C. (WIS) – A man has been fired from his job as a state trooper after his arrest on felony charges related to the assault of a man in Lexington.
It happened around 11:30 p.m. Friday on Riglaw Circle, in a neighborhood off Platt Springs Road, according to an incident report from the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department.
Deputies said John Paul Batista, 27, stopped at a house after seeing a man in the driveway.
Batista, who had worked for the South Carolina Highway Patrol for about two years, asked the man what he was doing there.
When the man said he was on a date, Batista grabbed him by the neck with both hands and slammed into the side of his truck, the incident report states.
Batista is accused of then pulling out a knife and pointing it at the man he had pinned to the vehicle.
The victim was able to take Batista to the ground and hold him in a way that prevented him from using the knife, the report said.
