The hatchet attack started as an argument between neighbors in Tacoma, charges say

The man was hanging around his apartment, and might be armed with a hatchet again.

That’s what the 44-year-old’s neighbor told Tacoma police Thursday, according to charging papers.

Plus, the neighbor said, the man had attacked him with the hatchet the day before.

The suspect was charged with first-degree assault, pleaded not guilty at arraignment Friday and was ordered held in lieu of $80,000 bail.

Court records give this account of what happened:

The neighbors ran into each other about 4 p.m. Wednesday at a fast-food restaurant near South 72nd Street and Pacific Avenue. While hanging out in the suspect’s car, they talked about the neighbor getting the suspect a job where he worked.

That led to an argument, which escalated to a fist fight.

Then the suspect went to the trunk of his car, grabbed a small hatchet and hit the neighbor’s left arm with it.

The neighbor fled, and got seven stitches at a local hospital.

An officer spoke with the suspect, who said he’d gone to the restaurant to pick up his neighbor, and that the neighbor made a rude comment to a worker there when he was upset with his food.

That upset the suspect, who said he drove across the street. He said the neighbor followed, started to fight him and wouldn’t let him leave.

The suspect was exhausted, he told police, so he armed himself with the hatchet.

The neighbor must have cut himself on it, the suspect said, because he was just holding the hatchet, not swinging it.

A witness said he heard the suspect tell someone on the phone Thursday: “I’m going to finish what I started yesterday as soon as I see that (expletive).”