Throwing flaming cup of gas in man’s face leads to arrest, Richland Co. sheriff says
A man was arrested after throwing a flaming cup of gasoline into another man’s face in a dispute over a gun, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday.
Cornelius Neal Diamond, 55, was charged with attempted murder Monday, the sheriff’s department said in a news release. He’s being held at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, and no bond has been set, jail records show. A bond hearing is set for either Tuesday or Wednesday, according to Richland County court records.
The attack happened Sept. 18, when the sheriff’s department said deputies responded to Prisma Health Baptist Hospital after learning a man suffered burn injuries to his face.
The 26-year-old victim told deputies an acquaintance, later identified as Diamond, hurled gas in his face while demanding the return of a missing gun, according to the release.
The man claimed Diamond had given him a gun to “hold on to” that was later stolen, the sheriff’s department said.
Information on the type of gun, and what happened to the weapon, was not made available by the sheriff’s department.
When his demands for the gun were disregarded, Diamond threatened the victim, according to the release.
The man told deputies he was walking on Abbott Road, near Bluff Road and less than two miles from Williams-Brice Stadium, when Diamond made good on the threat. Diamond confronted him about the gun, and after a brief argument, he threw the flaming cup of gasoline on the 26-year-old and walked away, the sheriff’s department said.
After being treated at the Columbia hospital, the man was taken to the Doctors Hospital Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia, to be treated for second- and third-degree burns, according to the release.
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This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 1:56 PM.
