Medal of Honor Recipient Arrested in South Carolina Hit-and-Run

This photo taken May 13, 2014 shows Medically retired Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter speaking to media at the Pentagon. On June 19, 2014, President Barack Obama will award Carpenter the Medal of Honor for his courageous actions while serving as an Automatic Rifleman with Company F, 2d Battalion, 9th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 1, 1st Marine Division (Forward), I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. (PHOTO CREDIT: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter, who saved a fellow Marine’s life in Afghanistan in 2010, was arrested on Thursday in South Carolina in connection with a hit-and-run incident in which a pedestrian was injured, police said.

Carpenter, 26, turned himself in on misdemeanor charges of hit and run involving personal injury and making an improper left turn, the Columbia Police Department said in a statement. He was released on bond.

Police said Carpenter cooperated with the investigation and was not believed to have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the incident.

Carpenter received the United States’ highest award in 2014 for heroism shown when he threw himself onto a grenade during an attack on his post in southern Afghanistan in 2010.

He lost most of his jaw and an eye, his arm was fractured in more than 30 places and he was in a coma for five weeks. His comrade sustained brain injuries but survived the attack.

He was medically retired from the Marines and is studying at the University of South Carolina, The State newspaper reported.

SOURCE: Reuters