A Brook Park, Minn., man has been charged in Pine County with four felonies in connection with a Nov. 29 robbery and assault in Hinckley.
Olaf Wilbert Thomas III, 21, is charged with three counts of assault and one count of robbery. He is accused of being one of three men who attacked a Hinckley man who was walking his dog along Lawler Avenue shortly after 6 a.m. on Nov. 29. The three got out of a vehicle, punched him in the face, knocked him to the ground, kicked and stomped on his head and punched him. The victim suffered numerous fractures to his skull, jaw and face and had to undergo reconstructive surgery. The assailants took the man's cell phone.
According to the criminal complaint, a person who knows Thomas said that on the afternoon after the attack, Thomas said he had beaten someone up and that marks on his hand were from "where I punched him in the teeth."
Investigators found a pair of Thomas' shoes had a sole consistent with a pattern that was on the victim's head.
"We are not finished with our investigation," Pine County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Steve Ovick said. "We will continue to investigate until everyone involved is hopefully behind bars."
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Thomas is being held in the Pine County Jail on $200,000 bail without conditions or $100,000 bail with conditions, Ovick said. Ovick hopes that Thomas' arrest will ease fears of people in Hinckley who were concerned about their safety after the attack.
