Police: Man killed cousin with garden rake

Sumter, South Carolina - Police say a man is behind bars after killing his own cousin with a gardening tool.

Reginald Gass, 21, is charged with murder after police say he struck his cousin, 31-year-old Carlos Lincoln, in the chest with a potato rake.

The incident happened Saturday afternoon in the front yard at 504 Atlantic Avenue.

"I'm shocked to know that the whole incident went down and took place how it did,"says a nearby resident who did not want to give her name.

Coroner Harvin Bullock says the two men were arguing when Lincoln reached for a piece of wood. That's when he says Gass grabbed the potato rake.

Officials say after the men swung the weapons at each other several times, with Gass delivering the fatal blow.

"I found it very unusual, just to know that you could come up with a potato rake in the middle of the afternoon when you're in the middle of a fight,"says Bullock.

Neighbors and friends of the victim say he was a good guy. "He's well loved, he's always been well loved. I mean everybody knew him,"says one woman.

As for the suspect, folks described Gass as a ticking time bomb. "He's a short tempered person. Some people can be out here and don't even say anything to him and he gets upset about it,"says another resident.

Meanwhile Gass' father says that had he been home when the fight broke out, he would've stopped it before it turned deadly.

Investigators are trying to determine if Gass acted in self defense.