Text message harassment allegedly led to the stabbing of a Pearl River County man.

Friday, deputies with the Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department were sent to Tanglewood Drive inside the gated community of Hide-A-Way Lake just after 11 p.m. in reference to the stabbing, said Chief Deputy Shane Tucker.

When the deputies arrived they spoke with a security officer who was following behind a white Toyota pickup truck that was following behind a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Tucker said the security officer told responding officers that, for an unknown reason, the driver of the Jeep got out of his vehicle and went to the passenger side of the Toyota, entering through the window, afterwards exiting the window with blood all over him.

After the altercation, the driver of Toyota left the scene, while the security officer rendered aid to the injured man, who had been stabbed in the chest, Tucker said.

An ambulance transported the man to Forrest General Hospital where he was last listed as being in critical condition, Tucker said.

Later that morning at about 4 a.m., deputies located the truck on Burgetown Road, where they took 34-year-old Joseph Randy Matherne of 176 Glover Rd., Poplarville, into custody for felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, Tucker said.

Before being booked into the county jail Matherne was transported to Highland Community Hospital where he received stiches for a laceration above his eye, Tucker said.

Preliminary investigation into the incident showed it stemmed from harassing text messages shared between the two men, Tucker said.

Matherne is currently being held at the county jail under a $74,000 bond.