A man who police say drove drunk onto Deerfield Golf Club’s course in his SUV, hit a golf cart and ejected its passenger has been charged with one felony and several misdemeanors.
The incident, which was captured on video that has been making the rounds on social media, occurred a little before 2:30 p.m. ET Thursday in Newark, Delaware.
Police with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control arrested the man just after the incident occurred. He’ll be arraigned once he is released from the hospital, the agency said.
Video taken by a bystander who was on another area of the golf course shows the man, whom police have not identified, speeding in his Ford Bronco along a paved road that separates two areas of the Milford Crossings course. He then drives over the low curb and onto the green.
On the green, he narrowly misses one golf cart. A player can be seen running away from the SUV.
The Bronco then hits a second golf cart, causing the occupant to fall out of the vehicle and onto the ground. They lay there while the Bronco continues in a circle over a small hill and back toward the paved road. The video then ends.
DNREC police said victim, whose gender and age were not given, “received minor injuries” but declined medical treatment at the course.
When police arrested the driver of the Bronco, he “made statements which required his transport to a hospital for evaluation,” DNREC said.
‘Oh he’s trying to murder me’
Video of the incident, which quickly circulated on several Reddit threads, other social media and was shared via text message garnered significant attention Thursday and Friday.
On the golf subreddit, it had nearly 25,000 “upvotes” as of 11 a.m. ET Friday. The title of the post was “Attempted murder on the golf course.”
“I expected someone to have shanked a drive, not say actual attempted murder,” one commenter wrote.
Another commenter said he was the man who ran away “right before the driver plows into the golf cart my buddy was in.”
He said he and friends had just finished the 16th hole. The driver of the Bronco, he said, “was doing doughnuts all over the driving range” and he pulled out his phone to snap a photo of the license plate.
“The driver saw I was recording him and turned to try and run me over,” the user wrote. “It went from, ‘I’m taking pictured of some idiot’ to, ‘Oh he’s trying to murder me’ in about 0.5 seconds.”
Delaware Online/The News Journal has not been able to verify veracity of the user’s comment.
The driver of the Bronco has been charged with felony reckless endangering, misdemeanor DUI-drugs, leaving the scene of an injury collision, “malicious mischief by a motor vehicle” and failure to have insurance on hand and several traffic violations.
The golf club is located in White Clay Creek State Park, which is why DNREC police responded.