Nicholas Edward Frazier agreed to take his son, who had been experiencing mental health issues, on a boat trip on Lake Michigan in an attempt to “uplift his life.”

But while they were out on Lake Michigan on Thursday, the son, Nicholas Floyd Frazier, grabbed a large wrench.

Nicholas Floyd Frazier, 20, of Chesterton, is charged with a level 3 felony of aggravated battery and a level 5 felony of battery with a deadly weapon.

A probable cause statement filed in Porter Superior Court outlines the circumstances of the son attacking his father.

The elder Frazier’s wife called the Lake Station police to report the incident. The Lake Station police officer took pictures of the man’s head and arms.

When law enforcement located the boat at Doyne’s Marina in Portage, they found it was “covered in blood.”

There was a large amount of blood by the driver’s seat and on the back side of the window at the helm of the boat. A bloody Craftsman socket wrench was also found In the boat.

“There was also visible blood on the deck at the center hatch, near the center’s ventilation ports. Blood was also documented on the passenger seat, aft bench, starboard and on the docking lines,” the statement said.

The younger Frazier had been hospitalized recently and was up all night. He asked his father to go out on the trip.

The father said it was windy but agreed to go out on the lake.

“I was telling him everything and loving him,” the father said.

While the father was driving, the son started hitting him in the back with a wrench. That happened in the area underneath the railroad bridge in Burns Ditch, just north of Portage Marina.

“He clubbed me so hard,” the father said. “The attack was so fierce, I have never been attacked like that in my life.”

At one point, both ended up out of the boat and into the water. They were both able to get back in the boat.

Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.