Picture of the fox from security video outside Brian Marshall's house.

   A Fort Mill girl found a rabid fox in her back yard in Kimbrell Crossing on Sunday morning and alerted her father, who then killed the charging animal.

   Brian Marshall, 42, told police Oct. 18 that he responded to his daughter when she said there was an animal that had came at her. The 10-year-old girl had been outside playing with neighborhood kids when she saw what she thought was a coyote. (Video below.)

   So Marshall went outside and located a fox laying down. Suddenly, the fox spotted him and charged him “in a very aggressive manner,” a police report says. 

   “Marshall advised that he discharged two rounds from his Glock 9 mm pistol, striking and killing the fox,” the report says.

   In an interview with the Fort Mill Sun, Marshall said he had first alerted animal control, but they said they didn’t respond to that kind of call. He tried to reach wildlife officials, but then the fox darted at him before he could get in touch. (Story continues below)

YouTube video

   “After that, the fox looked at me and darted right at me,” Marshall said. “It was either get bit by a rabid fox or shoot it. So I shot it. … There is no outrunning a fox.”

   Marshall has lived in that house for six years on Palmetto Bay Drive. The entrance to his subdivision is across the street from the Greenway, and his house backs up the woods behind the concrete plant on Hensley Road.

   “I have never seen a fox in broad daylight in 42 years of life,” he said, adding that he had moved from upstate New York. “That is the last thing I was thinking of dealing with on a Sunday morning.”

   Police arrived and told him to bury the fox, so he and his neighbor dug a hole in the woods.

   The S.C. Department of Natural Resources called him later and he explained how the animal had been acting. They told him it could be rabies or 37 other diseases that foxes get. 

   As for the future, Marshall said he told his daughter to stay out of the woods and be aware of her surroundings.

   “I was cutting the grass this evening, and i was constantly checking the tree line, making sure nothing was lurking,” he said. 

Greg "Ricky Bobby" Rickabaugh has lived in the Fort Mill and York County community since 2006. He has covered the area while a reporter for The Charlotte Observer and a freelance writer for The Fort Mill...