BEAUMONT, Texas — A man tells 12News he gave Sour Lake attack suspect Bradley Pruitt a ride two days before he allegedly brutally beat a Sour Lake police officer.
Jack Meaut said, "I felt sick when I saw his picture."
Saturday afternoon, Meaut stopped at Bingo Truck Stop in Winnie to grab a drink.
He saw a man sitting on the sidewalk out front and decided to make a nice gesture.
"It said 'Tennessee or cash,' so I commented to him that 'man that's a long way,'" said Meaut. "He said 'yeah, I'm just trying to get a little further down the road.'"
Meaut never thought that his passenger's face would stick with him days later.
He gave Pruitt a ride to Beaumont, not knowing the Kentucky man would soon be responsible for a heinous crime.
"We basically just talked like two guys, there wasn't anything threatening about him that I could tell," said Meaut. "He wasn't dressed dirty or didn't look like a transient."
Meaut says Pruitt told him that his name was "Brad" and from Kentucky.
Pruitt added he had gotten divorced from his wife and was headed to Tennessee to meet friends, according to Meaut.
RELATED: What we know: Suspect in assault of Sour Lake officer held without bond for out of state charge
Meaut and Pruitt traveled 20 miles to Beaumont before Pruitt was dropped off at the Petro Travel Store off Walden Road around 4 p.m. Saturday.
"He said 'if you see that name again or hear that name again, you'll know that's me,'" said Meaut. "I thought that was a little weird, even that day I thought that was weird."
Two days later, authorities say Pruitt brutally attacked a Sour Lake Police Officer outside a gas station.
He then took off in the officer's SUV and a 10-hour manhunt followed.
"I would've never picked him up if I would've known what was going to happen," Meaut said.
As soon as Meaut saw Pruitt's mugshot, he says he immediately knew the face.
Meaut adds that after this encounter, he doesn't plan on picking any stranger up again.
"Not a good feeling to know that I was that close to being in some kind of situation," said Meaut. "I'm won't pick anybody else up."
12News first reported on Tuesday that Pruitt served two years in prison, for charges related to an assault on an officer in Kentucky.
He's being held without bond because of pending charges in New Mexico.