Marine Corps Recruiter Jailed, Suspected of Murder Attempt : Confrontation: A Garden Grove man is comatose after the sergeant knocked him down in an Anaheim parking lot, police say.

A Marine Corps recruiter was in jail Saturday after a man he knocked down in a supermarket parking lot went into a coma after striking his head on the pavement, police said.

The victim, Larry Lamar Hatch, 22, of Garden Grove, was knocked unconscious by blows to his head and suffered severe head injuries when he fell to the pavement, police said.

Hatch was in critical condition at Los Alamitos Medical Center, according to police. Family members said Hatch underwent emergency brain surgery but is not expected to survive.

Police identified the Marine as Sgt. Juan Antonio Rodriguez, 29, of Irvine, reportedly a former boxer, who was being held on suspicion of attempted murder. Bail was set at $250,000.

The incident occurred Friday at 9:50 a.m. in the parking lot of Albertson’s supermarket at Brookhurst Street and Orange Avenue.

Police said Hatch and several others, all Albertson’s workers who had just finished their shift, were drinking beer in a parked truck.

Rodriguez walked by the truck toward his recruiting office near Albertson’s, police said, and “a verbal altercation” broke out between him and the group in the pickup truck.

According to officers, Rodriguez left, then returned with three other Marines from the recruiting office. Rodriguez, described as being 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighing 212 pounds, singled out Hatch and began punching him in the head, police said.

Hatch, described as about 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing 145 pounds, fell unconscious almost immediately, police said.