An Elizabethton man has been charged with aggravated assault after he allegedly stabbed another man in the stomach following a verbal altercation at the Gas n Go on Broad Street on Monday.

Christopher Scott Dishman, 25, 125 School House Road, was arrested and charged after he was found in the Carter County Schools administration building after fleeing from the gas station.

Elizabethton Police Department officers were dispatched to Gas n Go shortly after 11:30 a.m. Monday after a stabbing had occurred in the parking lot. Officers at the gas station spoke with witnesses and the victim, Mark Peters, 45, while other officers responded to the school administration building after receiving a call that a suspect had fled there.

EPD Patrol Officers James Sexton and Robert Bradshaw detained Dishman in the lower level of the administration building. During the initial interview with officers, he allegedly told them he had been “jumped” by three people in the parking lot. Officers frisked him and found a package of blades for a utility knife in his pocket.

Dishman was taken in to the EPD criminal investigation for a further interview. EPD Sgt. Shane Darling said Dishman said he had been approached by three guys who attacked him and initially denied stabbing the victim.

“Later in the interview, Christopher stated during the fight, two of the men knocked him down, and as he was getting up he grabbed something off the ground and struck Peters in the stomach with it,” Darling said.

He added Dishman later recanted the statement and said he never hit Peters with a rock. After the formal interview was over, Darling said Dishman was talking with an investigator outside of the interview room. The investigator allegedly told Dishman the EPD only wanted to know the truth, to which Dishman reportedly responded “I got jumped, and just did what I had to do.”

EPD Capt. Joy Shoun went to Johnson City Medical Center to talk with Peters about the incident. Peters allegedly told Shoun while he was in the parking lot working on a vehicle, a friend pointed out Dishman and said he believed Dishman was the person who broke into Peters’ car around a year ago.

Peters allegedly then went over to Dishman to confront him about the break-in when a woman with Dishman came over and became verbally aggressive, telling Peters to leave Dishman alone.

“The verbal argument then escalated to pushing and shoving,” Darling reported.

Peters was knocked to the ground, and then discovered his stomach had been cut, Darling continued. The injury to Peters’ stomach looked as if it could have been caused by a box cutter, or a similar razor blade, Darling said.

Darling also reviewed security camera footage from Gas n Go. The footage showed two men approach Dishman and talk. Then Peters walks up.

“It does not appear in the video that Dishman ‘got knocked down’ like he had stated in his interview,” Darling said.

After Peters was cut, the two other men walked back into the store and then left the scene, Darling said. Dishman was seen walking past a truck with the woman before fleeing the scene.

A witness at the Gas n Go told EPD Cpl. Jordan Ensor that he noticed Dishman sitting against the outside wall of the store with two females, when a man came out of the store and “threw a punch” at Dishman. When the man turned around, he appeared to have a stab wound to his side. The witness told Ensor it was then that Dishman fled from the store.

Dishman is scheduled to appear in General Sessions Court on Aug. 10.