Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
White Couple Allegedly Attacked Interracial Couple During Road Rage Incident, Hurled Racist Slurs At Them
John Kingkade and his wife, Krystal Kingkade, allegedly beat and robbed Elena Vawter and Bron Cornett in a Dollar Tree parking lot after cutting them off with their Mercedes.
A white South Carolina couple is accused of violently attacking an interracial couple during a road rage incident while yelling racist slurs, the local sheriff's department said this week.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department arrested John Kingkade, 38, and his wife Krystal Kingkade, 37, on Wednesday evening in connection with the Saturday incident, according to a sheriff’s department press release obtained by Oxygen.com.
On Saturday evening, the other couple was driving when their vehicle was reportedly cut off by the Kingkade's vehicle. The driver of the Kingkade's car, which is reportedly a newer model white Mercedes, signaled for the couple — identified by WIS-TV as 21-year-olds Elena Vawter and Bron Cornett — to pull over into a nearby Dollar Tree parking lot.
“Once there, John Kingkade got out of his vehicle, approached the victims’ car, and began shouting racial slurs at them,” the press release states.
When Cornett got out of his car, John Kingkade allegedly assaulted him, “knocking him to the ground,” according to the press release.
“It was such a loud smack when my boyfriend hit the ground,” Vawter told WIS-TV. “The scream was so horrendous, I thought he had been shot.”
When the Vawter came to her boyfriend's aid, investigators say she was assaulted by Krystal Kingkade.
“Both victims’ phones were taken during the altercation,'' investigators note. “The Kingkades then left the scene.”
Both Vawter and Cornett had to be taken to the hospital to be treated for their injuries. Vawter told WIS-TV that her tooth was broken after John Kingkade allegedly punched her in the face.
Cornett now apparently has muscle, nerve and ligament damage.
“I’m constantly in pain now,” Cornett told WIS-TV. “I don’t know if my leg’s going to be the same ever again.”
The married couple has each been charged with two counts of robbery and two counts of assault and battery in the first degree. They are no longer in jail after posting bonds. It’s unclear if they have lawyers.
John Kingkade is scheduled to appear back in court on May 14; Krystal Kingkade is due before a judge on May 21. He has a prior criminal history after in 2003 he pleaded guilty to a drug charge, according to The State.
