Police: Son attacked father with hatchet

BELMONT, N.C. — A Belmont man said he didn't think he would survive being attacked with a hatchet and police said the weapon was in the hands of his son.
 
"I thought I was dying. I really thought I was a goner," said William Sloan Sr.
 
He said he doesn't know why his son William Sloan II attacked him with a hatchet.
 
"I raised my son for 20 years and he tried to kill me," the father said.
 
He said he was helping his son deal with an addiction to over-the-counter cough medicine.
 
They live at a home on Armstrong Ford Road near Belmont.
 
William Sloan Sr. has chronic back problems and needs a walker and said that on June 11 at 1 a.m., his son came into his bedroom and pushed him down.
 
"Once he got me down he started hitting me with the hatchet," he said. "He hit me so hard in the armpit that the hatchet stuck in my arm. I trapped it there and then I grabbed the other side of the hatchet like this."
 
He said he held onto the blade and fought to keep it away from his son.
 
"There is not a doubt in my mind if I had not made it off of the floor in my bedroom I wouldn't be here today," William Sloan Sr. said.
 
His son then took off in his truck and police arrested William Sloan II hundreds of miles away.
 
He faces a judge on Friday in Gaston County.
 
Prosecutors said they will upgrade his charges from serious assault to attempted murder.
 
"I have mixed emotions," the father said. "I'm very sad."
 
William Sloan Sr. said it is hard to accept his son will be charged with trying to kill him.
 
"It's heartbreaking. It's really heartbreaking," he said.
 
William Sloan Sr. said he is looking for a new home. He said it is difficult going to sleep each night in a room where his son viciously attacked him.

WSOC