CHICKASHA, Okla. — Police in Chickasha are investigating a bizarre attack. They say a man attacked a woman with a hammer. The suspect has a lengthy criminal record of violence, but what police reportedly found inside his home is almost as unnerving as the crime they say he committed.
“What the victim says is she was outside on a break, smoking a cigarette, talking on a cell phone and saw the suspect and his mom walk by, and once they got out of sight, she turned the other direction,” Chickasha Police Major Elip Moore said. “She heard footsteps of somebody running up behind her.”
Police say that somebody was 40-year-old Teddy Lynn Claborn, Jr.
The victim says she recognized Claborn.
She says he and his mother would circle around the business plaza where she works and pick up cigarette butts, but this time police say he did more than that.
“He ran at her with his hand raised over his head,” Moore said. “She screamed and kind of ducked her head to avoid being hit, and at that point she did feel a sharp blow to the head, and the suspect continued to run after he hit her.”
Her boss at Sun Loan Company called 911 and she was rushed to the hospital with a gash to her head.
The wound so large, doctors had to use staples to close it.
Police quickly tracked down Claborn at his home and arrested him.
“Officers went over, conducted an investigation and determined probable cause that he was in fact the suspect that had struck her with what we believe to be a hammer,” Moore said.
Police say Claborn has a history of using metal objects as weapons, but this is the first time they say he attacked a person with one.
According to a police document, inside his home they found several clubs and bars.
They also reportedly found a doll.
Its hands and feet were bound with string and it had also been stabbed with a pin.
Claborn remains in the Grady County Jail.
Police found several possible weapons inside his house, but never located the hammer they believe he used in the attack.
“He could have thrown it anywhere,” Moore said. “It’s not uncommon for people to discard weapons that are used in crimes.”
Wednesday Claborn was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, his third time to be charged with that offense.
He’s also been in legal trouble for throwing objects at moving vehicles.
