COVINGTON, Ga. — Two brothers’ Christmas Day visit to their mother’s house ended up with the two men in a knife fight that left each other with severe wounds.

One man received a severe laceration to his shoulder and the other suffered a cut to his arm following the incident, a Covington Police report stated.

A Covington officer reported responding to a call about an assault at a residence on Holmes Court Dec. 25 at 6 p.m. 

The officer reported finding one victim seated in the back of his Chevrolet Tahoe “bleeding pretty good,” and using a jacket found in the vehicle to cover the stab wound. The victim refused to go to the hospital despite EMS workers telling him the wound needed stitches.

The victim, who was not identified in the report, told the officer he had been visiting his children who lived with his mother at the residence. His brother’s children also were there to receive Christmas presents, the report stated.

His brother then “started running his mouth” about a female acquaintance both knew and began describing an unidentified woman in vulgar terms which the victim “did not like.”

A physical fight ensued and the victim told an officer his brother found a kitchen knife and stabbed him. They continued to fight outside and the victim said he ran inside and locked the door but the other brother broke the door open and continued to fight him, according to the report.

The officer reported he was later advised the brother, who also was not identified, had shown up at Piedmont Newton Hospital with a severe cut to his arm.

Officers found a broken knife in the driveway and another blood-stained knife in the backyard. The victim, however, repeatedly denied cutting his brother during the incident, the officer reported.

The 11 children at the scene at the time of the incident had been playing in the house and yard. The mother of one man's children told an officer she witnessed the entire incident and the victim had tried several times to get away from his brother. 

She also told an officer she and all the children got into her car as the two men fought.

The officer reported placing one of the men into handcuffs and transporting him to the Covington Police Department for questioning but did not identify which man.

In an unrelated incident on Christmas Eve, a man told Covington Police he accidentally shot himself in the thigh with a Glock 26 pistol he was carrying in his pocket.

The victim told officers at Piedmont Newton Hospital he was gathering items out of his vehicle at his home about 7 p.m. He reached for the gun and “forgot the gun had a bullet in the chamber” before he “mistakenly pulled the trigger” and shot himself in the thigh.

His girlfriend transported the victim to the hospital in a personal vehicle for treatment, the report stated.