A man suspected of hitting another man on the head with a three-foot-long stick in Boulder was arrested on Sunday.
Daniel Joseph Gardner, 38, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree assault, second-degree assault, drug paraphernalia and unlawful possession of a controlled substance.
He is set for a filing of charges today and is currently in custody on a $5,000 bond.
According to an affidavit, at 10:10 a.m. Sunday, officers were dispatched to an assault near 30th Street and Shadow Creek Drive.
A witness said they saw a man running out of the woods covered in blood being chased by a white man in a dark jacket.
The victim was transported to Boulder Community Health to get stitches for the laceration to his forehead. He told police that he had stepped outside of his tent when Gardner struck him in the face with a baseball bat or large stick. He also said that he began to run toward 30th Street with Gardner chasing after him, according to the affidavit.
In an interview with police at the hospital, the injured man said the day before the assault, Gardner was angry about feces that was found on a trail near their campsite and confronted him, saying “I’ll kill you, I’ll cut your eyeballs.”
According to the affidavit, while canvassing the area, officers located a three-foot-long stick with ‘The Magician’ written on it and discovered “what appeared to be fresh blood droplets 3 to 5 yards from where the stick was found.”
When interviewed by police, Gardner initially denied any involvement in the assault, stating that he had already left the campsite when the man was injured. He also said that the man may have fallen onto a rock or that the injury could’ve been self-inflicted, according to the affidavit.