Baseball-Bat Wielding West Des Moines Man Winds Up in ER

A situation went from bad to worse early one morning for a 19-year-old West Des Moines man who promised police he wouldn’t try to “handle” three men he thought were intent on damaging his SUV on is own – and then promptly did so, to his own peril.

He would up in emergency room for treatment of a knife wound and possible internal injuries, according to a report on file with the

The victim told medics from West Des Moines EMS that “he got his bell rung” by the alleged assailants, who he claimed had rifled through his SUV in the early-morning hours of May 18 in the 900 block of 78th Place.

The victim told Police Officer Amanda St. George that he awoke to a loud noise — three smashed flower pots — and looked out the window to see the driver side door of his SUV was open and three men were surrounding it.

When the victim reported the incident to police, he said nothing was missing and he didn’t want to press charges. He told St. George he thought he knew the suspects and that he and his friends would “handle it” if they returned.

St. George wrote in her report that she told him not to take matters into his own hands, and he agreed. “He said he would refrain from using weapons to scare them,” she said.

When the three men returned about 4 o’clock that morning, the victim reportedly surprised them with a baseball bat.

According to the report, one suspect punched him in the face and sliced his right cheek with a weapon, possible a knife. The victim hit one of the suspects in the back with his bat before they ran off.

When medics arrived, they were reluctant to leave the victim alone because he had been drinking. According to the report, he did not complete the mental evaluation to the medics’ satisfaction, so they took him to the hospital.