Suspect Charged After Allegedly Beating a Man With a Log Wednesday Afternoon

(KNSI) – A 19-year-old Stearns County man is in jail after allegedly assaulting another man with a log.

Wednesday afternoon, a man told police a car pulled up next to him while he was walking, and the person inside told him to get in and demanded his phone. The man started running because he was afraid the man would rob him. He says that man, Abdirahim Kebede, followed him to an apartment on the 400 block of 14th Street South and began beating him with a log.

A resident of the building found the man on the floor of the hallway with Kebede standing over him. She said she heard someone shouting for help before she discovered the victim.

Surveillance video from the scene allegedly shows Kebede and another man going into the building and say he was yelling at the man and had a log in his hand. A few minutes later, police say they saw the man leave the building. Police say the left side of the man’s face and the top of his head were swollen. He also had lacerations, bruising, and marks on his left arm. Investigators also say they recovered a piece of wood that was about two and a half feet long and three inches wide at the scene.

Police say Kebede claimed he was acting in self-defense. He has been charged with felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon.

He is due back in court on August 18th.

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