Individual Attacks Victim in Throat in Store Checkout Queue

A shopper at a South Carolina convenience store admitted to stabbing another person in a checkout line in the throat, authorities say.

On Monday, Frank Arthur Lawson, aged 64, pleaded guilty to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, according to the state’s Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor’s Office reported. He received a sentence of 17 years in the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

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The charges arise from an incident in June 2023 at a Spinx convenience store in Greenville County, South Carolina. Authorities state that Lawson and the victim, who remains unidentified, “were in a disagreement about who was next in line” at the establishment when Lawson “pulled out a knife and stabbed the unarmed victim in the throat.”

The male victim survived the attack “due to the quick response of Greenville EMS” and the medical workers at the nearby hospital where the victim was brought, the Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor’s Office said.

Lawson has a criminal history in Greenville County dating back to the 1980s, according to court records reviewed by Law&Crime. In January 1989, he pled guilty to simple common law assault, with the original charge being a familiar one to 2023 – assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. In 2018, he was found guilty of receiving stolen goods of $2,000 or less.