DALTON, Ga. — A Dalton man pulled an aluminum baseball bat out of a car and hit two men after an argument escalated in the parking lot of a local Wal-Mart, according to a witness.

“I noticed that the Hispanics and the white dude were arguing,” said Ashley Brock, who witnessed the incident Sunday afternoon at the Wal-Mart on East Walnut Avenue. “The Hispanics told him to go on, and he had something in his hand. The Hispanics said he had a knife but I didn’t see that. He drove around the parking lot, and then came back with a baseball bat, started hitting them with the baseball bat. I don’t know why they were fighting. It was crazy.”

James Hampton Wilson Jr., 28, of 609 S. Hamilton St., was charged by the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office with aggravated assault and cruelty to children in the third degree.

According to an incident report filed by sheriff’s deputies, Gilberto Dominguez said the argument began when Wilson almost hit him with his vehicle while he was putting up his shopping cart. Dominguez told deputies he “threw his hands up in the air and asked Mr. Wilson if he was trying to hit him.” He said Wilson accelerated like he was going to hit him and drove to another row and got out of the car with a knife and a baseball bat and started to walk toward him. He was “unclear what Mr. Wilson said to him …” Wilson then left but came back down another row and Dominguez and a friend tried to get a picture of the license plate of the car. That was when Wilson stopped and got out of the car with the baseball bat and charged him, Dominguez said.

“It was loud. It was not hard to get your attention,” Brock said. “It was something else. He came out of the car with the bat in his hands cussing at him and started swinging. Thankfully there was a couple of guys out there and they held him down.”

But they didn’t subdue him before Wilson connected.

When reached on Monday, Dominguez said he suffered some bruises to his ribs from the tussle, while his friend Michael Villarreal was hit twice in the head by the bat. Villarreal was not treated by EMS at the scene, but Dominguez said Villarreal had pronounced swelling on Monday.

After investigators took statements from witnesses and obtained security camera footage from Wal-Mart, Wilson was arrested. A witness said Wilson’s children “were present during the incident,” according to the report. Two juveniles were released to a family member after the local office of the Division of Family and Children Services was contacted.

Wilson was released from jail Monday afternoon on a $4,000 bond. When contacted, he declined to comment.