Man Charged With Physically Assaulting Two Boys

Lexington County Sheriff’s Department detectives on Monday, June 7 served a 29-year-old West Columbia man with arrest warrants in connection with the stabbing of an 11-year-old boy and the attempted strangling of a 9-year-old boy on Sunday, June 6 at a West Columbia home that the man shared with the two boys.

Lexington County Sheriff James R. Metts said detectives on Monday served Jason Tremaine Lemmon, Sr., 29, of West Columbia, with arrest warrants on two counts of assault and battery with intent to kill and one count of possessing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Detectives served Lemmon with the arrest warrants at the Lexington County Detention Center, where Lemmon was being held on Monday while awaiting a bond hearing.

Arrest warrants allege that Lemmon placed his hands around the throat of the 9-year-old boy in an effort to strangle the boy, Metts said. Lemmon intended to break the boy’s neck.

Arrest warrants further allege that Lemmon took a knife from the kitchen in the West Columbia home and used the knife to stab the 11-year-old boy at least three times in his upper torso, Metts said. Lexington County Emergency Medical Services personnel transported the 11-year-old boy by ambulance to Lexington Medical Center, where the boy later was released.

Detectives are continuing to investigate the motives for the assaults on the two boys, Metts said. Lemmon is related to one of the two boys and was staying as a guest at the West Columbia home, where the assaults occurred.
Deputies arrived at the West Columbia home at 11:26 a.m. on Sunday in order to investigate the assaults on the two boys, Metts said. The mother of the 9-year-old boy reported the assaults.

Lemmon assaulted the 11-year-old boy in the home’s living room, punching the 11-year-old boy in the face and later stabbing the boy in his upper back with a kitchen knife that Lemmon had obtained in the home’s kitchen, Metts said. The knife’s blade broke when Lemmon stabbed the 11-year-old boy, who cried out for help several times.

The 9-year-old boy and the 9-year-old boy’s mother ran into the living room in order to help the 11-year-old boy, Metts said. Lemmon placed his hands around the 9-year-old boy’s throat and tried to strangle the 9-year-old boy, dragging the boy out of the home through the front door. The 9-year-old boy’s mother repeatedly hit Lemmon in the head with her cellular telephone, causing Lemmon to let go of the 9-year-old boy.

Lemmon ran away, Metts said. Lemmon ran to Columbia Metropolitan Airport, where officers with the Columbia Metropolitan Airport Police Department detained Lemmon. Deputies arrested Lemmon at 1:13 p.m. on Sunday in connection with the assaults on the two boys.