A 54-year-old Mountain Lake man faces attempted murder charges for allegedly beating another man with a jack handle.

Bounthong Inthaxay got into an altercation with Phayboun Khekitisack over an auto repair job and struck Khekitisack several times in the head, Cottonwood County authorities said.

Khekitisack was airlifted to a Sioux Falls hospital, where he remained in its critical care unit on Monday.

According to court documents:

On Thursday night Mountain Lake police were called to Inthaxay’s residence, where they encountered a man bleeding from his head.

Witnesses pointed out Inthaxay as the assailant, and Inthaxay walked over to an officer and extended his hands as if to be handcuffed.

Inthaxay told authorities he had become upset with Khekitisack, who was helping with a repair on Inthaxay’s pickup truck.

Inthaxay said he got mad because he felt Khekitisack wasn’t properly tending to a transmission repair he had hired Khekitisack to perform.

Inthaxay stated that he removed the handle from a 2-ton jack, struck the truck with the handle several times, struck the other man with it, then placed the handle back into the jack.

Inthaxay was jailed and charged with attempted first-degree murder.