USC student placed in chokehold ‘felt like I was going to die’ outside Five Points bar

Ryan Chisolm was out having a good time in Five Points at a bar when he saw a friend of a friend in what seemed like an argument.

Chisolm, 22, said he walked over to check on his acquaintance. But before he knew it, the University of South Carolina student was being pushed outside of the bar, placed in a choke hold until he passed out and hurled onto the side of the street where he landed face first.

But Chisolm said he doesn’t remember much of what happened except feeling like he “was going to die.”

“Out of no where, I was out of breath and I couldn’t breathe,” Chisolm said. “When I woke up… I couldn’t even talk.”

Chisolm was rushed to the hospital, where he learned that he was having a hard time speaking because he had broken his jaw. Doctors also told him that though it looked like his teeth were missing, they actually had been pushed into his gums from the impact of his face against the ground.

Since then, Chisolm has been limited to soups and smoothies, because attempting to chew triggers an “excruciating pain.”

Though he is on prescribed medication, Chisolm said he takes it only when he’s at home, and he is trying his best to still go to his classes. To meet his graduation target date of December with a degree in computer information systems, Chisolm said his family and friends are driving him to school.

And his manager at his part-time job at a retail store at the Village at Sandhill has been understanding of the situation and told him to take as long as he needs, Chisolm said.

So Chisolm is taking one day at a time, he said. But there is something about the night of his attack that still really bothers him.

“I felt very emotional and sick to my stomach that nobody helped,” Chisolm said. “I was just in tears.”

Chisolm said that he believes he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. But he also said that he was frustrated with how today’s generation, instead of taking action, just watched on as he was attacked.

In a statement released Tuesday evening, the Columbia Police Department said it continues to investigate the incident.

This story was originally published March 28, 2017 at 7:32 PM with the headline "USC student placed in chokehold ‘felt like I was going to die’ outside Five Points bar."