Man with pepper spray and baton fatally beats 70-year-old at laundromat, Ohio cops say
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Weeks after being assaulted inside a laundromat, a 70-year-old Ohio man has died, and now his accused attacker is charged with murder, officials say and news outlets report.
In addition to murder, Dustin M. Thompson, 36, is facing charges of felonious assault and possession of criminal tools, court records filed March 5 in Franklin County show. He had previously been charged with attempted murder in connection to the Feb. 1 incident, and his bail was set at $1 million.
McClatchy News reached out to an attorney listed for Thompson on March 6 but didn’t immediately hear back.
Surveillance video from the laundromat shows Tommy McClendon sitting at a table when Thompson walks up, douses him with pepper spray, then starts hitting him with a baton, investigators said, WSYX reported.
During the beating, which lasted about 20 minutes, Thompson is seen kicking McClendon out of his chair and slamming a trash can into his head, police say, then pouring a bottle of Gatorade onto him before throwing the bottle, the station reported.
Thompson told officers that he attacked McClendon in self defense, police told The Columbus Dispatch.
McClendon was hospitalized with a brain bleed, surviving only with the help of a breathing machine, the outlet reported.
He died at the hospital on Feb. 18, WSYX reported.