Staff report
A 39-year-old Hamlet man has been charged with 12 counts, five of which include assault with a deadline weapon with an intent to kill and inflicting serious injury, stemming from a May 11 incident in which police allege Mark Todd McDonald used his vehicle to ram his ex-wife’s van.
Photo courtesy Richmond County Sheriff’s Office
Mark Todd McDonald
Shortly after emergency dispatchers received a call of a vehicle ramming into a van at the intersection of U.S. Route 74 West and Old Charlotte Highway, dispatchers fielded another call at about 8:10 p.m. of an overturned vehicle in the same area. Fire, rescue and North Carolina Highway Patrol responded to the scene.
State troopers determined the overturned van was the result of an assault. The sheriff’s office was contacted to take over the investigation. Richmond County sheriff’s deputies issued a bulletin for McDonald, of Whitlock Drive in Hamlet. He was stopped in adjacent Anson County by deputies a short time later.
McDonald was placed in Richmond County Jail for violating a domestic violence protective order and has since been charged with the following: Felony violation of a domestic protective order; two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill; three counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury; felony hit and run; three counts of assault on a female; reckless driving to endanger; and misdemeanor injury to personal property.
No one suffered life threating injuries, but three did and have remained in the hospital for several days. McDonald has is being held on a $500,000 secured bond.
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