Police: Man ambushed 2 Sharky’s Bar employees
A 19-year-old USC student is charged with attempted murder after police say he ambushed two employees of Sharky’s Bar in Five Points early Tuesday morning and stabbed one.
The man is accused of hiding in the bar after it closed and attacking two off-duty employees with a serrated knife. One suffered non-life-threatening injuries after being stabbed in the lower abdomen, according to Columbia police spokesman James Crawford.
Barry Hunter Hale, a student in the College of Engineering and Computing, is charged with attempted murder, second-degree assault and battery and aggravated assault and battery, according to jail records. He had not been released as of Tuesday night.
After the attack, Crawford said the man knocked out a second-floor window of the bar and jumped out onto the street. He was detained by multiple bystanders before a nearby officer arrested him.
He was intoxicated and had a fake I.D., Crawford said. Police haven’t identified a motive for the attack.
“It was really bizarre behavior,” Crawford said.