Golf club attack in east Santa Rosa injures one

A Santa Rosa man was hospitalized Monday after being repeatedly beaten with a golf club during an argument, police said.

Leslie Reese III, 53, was found lying on Bennett Valley Road near the Sonoma County Fairgrounds with a broken right leg and other arm and leg injuries, Santa Rosa police said. Witnesses called authorities about 11:30 a.m. when the argument turned violent.

The suspect, later identified as Scott Cooper, 56, fled on a bicycle after tossing the iron club, which broke in the attack, police said. Officers found the club’s shaft in a nearby parking lot and the head near Reese, who was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

The two men, who are homeless, knew each other but what their argument was about wasn’t clear, police said.

Officers found Cooper, known in the neighborhood for confronting area residents, at a Barham Avenue bar, police said. He was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and booked into Sonoma County Jail on $30,000 bail.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 707-521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@rossmannreport.