Medal of Honor recipient charged in South Carolina hit-and-run

Medal of Honor recipient retired U.S. Marine Cpl. Kyle Carpenter arrives for the National Portrait Gallery’s presentation of the inaugural American Portrait Gala in Washington November 15, 2015. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

(Reuters) - Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter, who saved a fellow Marine's life in Afghanistan in 2010, was arrested on Thursday in South Carolina in connection with a hit-and-run incident in which a pedestrian was injured, police said. Carpenter, 26, turned himself in on misdemeanor charges of hit and run involving personal injury and making an improper left turn, the Columbia Police Department said in a statement. He was released on bond. Police said Carpenter cooperated with the investigation and was not believed to have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the incident. Carpenter received the United States' highest award in 2014 for heroism shown when he threw himself onto a grenade during an attack on his post in southern Afghanistan in 2010. He lost most of his jaw and an eye, his arm was fractured in more than 30 places and he was in a coma for five weeks. His comrade sustained brain injuries but survived the attack. He was medically retired from the Marines and is studying at the University of South Carolina, The State newspaper reported. (Reporting by Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, N.C.)