CHICKASHA, Okla.- A machete, some choice words and a fight put a Chickasha man behind bars late Thursday evening.
Scabs are the battle wounds of Larry Love, a father who was allegedly attacked by his neighbor, Ken Segotta.
“Me and my son were outside, we were in the backyard fixing to have a cookout,” Love remembers.
Love says he was standing in the backyard with his 4-year-old son around 7 p.m. on Thursday night.
“The dude crossed the alleyway and started, and he started pulling a gun,” Love said.
According to police reports, the weapon was an air soft gun.
“I told him, ‘Don’t be doing that because I got my little son out here,” Love says.
Love says his wife tried to calm the situation down, but that’s when things became even stranger.
“He went in his house and got a machete and came running towards her,” Love says.
Love says he jumped in front of his wife and began fighting with Segotta.
“He still had the knife in his hand, the machete, and I guess he came up somehow and started trying to saw my back,” Love said.
Fortunately, church members across the street got involved.
“A couple of guys, they ran and tackled me thinking I was beating him up for no reason and I told them what happened,” Love says.
Police say Segotta allegedly attacked Love because he didn’t like the way he looked.
“He had an issue with his neighbor, a different race than himself, when he saw him out in the backyard, him and his son, he wanted them to go inside,” Shannon McClain, assistant chief of the Chickasha Police Department, says.
Love says he is just glad to be alive.
“I’m alright, it’s all good. I’m not trippin’ on it no more,” Love said.
Kenneth Segotta is in the Grady County Jail facing charges of assault with a dangerous weapon and racial harassment.
At last check, Segotta was still in jail with a $10,000 bond for assault with a dangerous weapon and $5,000 for yelling racial slurs at the father and son.