Man has leg severed after co-worker ‘hunted him down’ and hit him with a car following an argument at work

Wednesday, July 31, 2024 - A 29-year-old man is in critical condition after his co-worker "hunted him down" and hit him with a car.

Trae Black, 29, fled a construction site in Perth, Australia, after an alleged argument on the site.

Matthew William Lawson, 25, came to confront Trae, who ran away. Matthew then chased him in his Mazda Ute and hit him.

The two men’s manager, "Horse" Elliott, told The West Australian he believed the axle of the vehicle severed Trae’s leg.

Trae reportedly stumbled around, with half of his leg missing, asking for help when good Samaritans stopped to help him.

One of them, an orthopaedic doctor, used her handbag strap as a tourniquet while they waited for help to arrive. They found his severed leg on a nearby bank.

The highway in Perth was closed for a period of time while officers investigated and took Trae to seek medical treatment.

After hitting Trae, it’s alleged Matthew assaulted him with a "demolition hammer".

Western Australia police said: "It is believed the victim was struck by the vehicle before being assaulted with a hammer."

Matthew appeared at Perth Magistrates Court on July 31, charged with one count of attempted murder.

When asked how he wished to plead, he told Magistrate Janelle Scutt: "Yup, guilty."

Deputy Police Commissioner Allan Adams said: "What will be alleged by the police is that the accused hit the victim with his vehicle to start with, which caused some serious significant injury to his leg, which essentially, his lower leg was separated from his body.

"He then went up to him and hit him twice with a hammer. So violence to the absolute extreme."

Large blood stains were seen splattered across the black tarmac of the road where Trae was hit.

Trae and Matthew’s boss, ‘Horse’, said: ‘Everyone is a bit distraught, we’ve got a bit of employees that aren’t on site but we’ve got to make sure we get the job done that we tried to start yesterday.

‘I suggest that what happened yesterday, I don’t wish that on anyone and when you turn up to work you don’t expect anything like that to happen but that’s the world we live in nowadays.