Man dies nearly two weeks after trying to break up Garden City bar fight

Michael Dunn succumbed to his injuries 11 days after trying to break up a bar fight at the Sandy Monkey Bar in Garden City where he was hit by a fleeing car on Jan. 6.

Witnesses told police the 44-year-old Horry County man was trying to stop the violence when he was knocked out and severely injured by the suspects’ fleeing vehicle.

Three suspects are facing multiple charges after police responded to the fight.

Horry County police found Dunn lying unconscious in the parking lot as other people tried to help him and a white sports utility vehicle left the scene.

The investigation revealed that the SUV “may have run the man over as it left,” Lt. Raul Denis of the Horry County Police Department said in a release last week. “A witness followed the vehicle and officers were able to apprehend the driver,” identified in charges as 35-year-old Janelle Lee Castillo of Murrells Inlet.

Castillo was charged with hit and run and leaving the scene of an accident with great bodily injury and with first-degree assault and battery.

Christopher Neil Buckman, 23, of Surfside Beach, was charged with two counts of third-degree assault and battery. Daniel Watts, 23, of Garden City, was charged with third-degree assault and battery and public disorderly conduct.

Officers said the victim, who was having difficulty breathing, suffered a “severe head injury,” according to a police report.

A witness at the scene told officers that the fight started between two people but progressed into a brawl.

The witness said she was hit multiple times while trying to protect the injured man as he lay on the ground, according to the report. Another witness reported seeing the injured man being “run over by the suspect’s white SUV” as they left the parking lot, the report stated.

“Doctors at Grand Strand Medical Center advised the victim’s head injury was consistent with being run over by a motor vehicle,” according to the report.

The case remains under investigation.

This story was originally published January 17, 2017 at 4:21 PM with the headline "Man dies nearly two weeks after trying to break up Garden City bar fight."