A plumber remains in the hospital after an attack by a man wielding a metal bat in Blue Point.

Thomas Buckleman told News 12 that he thought he was going to die during the attack on Monday evening.

He says he got his plumbing tools out of the car and then the man with a bat started swinging at him.

"I don't know how many times I got hit because I kept getting wailed on, and I was able to fight him off and ran inside," Buckleman says.

He managed to lock himself in a bathroom in the building as neighbors called 911 and Buckleman called his wife.

Police arrested 43-year-old Demond Small, a man who neighbors say has been squatting in the home behind the property.

According to court records, Small has a long criminal history but did not have to post bail after his most recent arrest.

"This guy should not have been out on the streets, especially that I was not even a threat to him," Buckleman says. "I was literally carrying my tools in the building, and he violently attacked me with a baseball bat."

Buckleman now has three fractures in his skull and blood on his brain.

Small was charged with assault in the first degree and is currently being held on $75,000 cash bail.