Near midnight on June 20, officers from the Covington Police Department were called to a home on Emory Street in reference to an open line 911 call and ended up arresting a man for battery.

According to reports, when the officer arrived he immediately heard yelling coming from the back yard of the residence, and when he looked down the driveway he noticed two white males yelling at one another. When the officer activated his emergency equipment, the men reportedly ran out of sight of the driveway.

When the officer exited his vehicle, he reportedly saw one of the men standing in front of a white van in the driveway with his hands on top of his head. When asked where the other man had gone, he reportedly pointed to the top of another van that was also parked in the driveway.

According to reports, the officer could hear someone moving around on top of that vehicle and advised the person that if he did not come down he [the officer] would use his Taser. The man allegedly slid down the windshield of the van at that time.

The officer spoke first with the man standing in front of the van. He reportedly told the officer that there was a man inside the home who was fighting with his friend, Jimmy Higgins, and that he had brought Higgins outside to try and calm him down.

After speaking with this man, a man reportedly walked from the front of the residence to the back with blood all over his face. This man allegedly told the officer that his roommate, Jimmy Higgins, had come home "mad and drunk" and that he had starting banging on his bedroom door wanting to fight him and his girlfriend. He reportedly told the officer that he had attempted to calm Higgins down but instead of calming down, Higgins just hit him in the face.

When the officer began to speak with Higgins, he found him to be very uncooperative, according to reports, and he was placed in the back of a patrol car. The female witness to the altercation allegedly told the officer that Higgins had been fishing all day and told her that he would be home at 6 p.m., then later called her and moved the time back, saying that he would be later than 6 p.m.

The woman reportedly told Higgins that she was going out and he allegedly informed her that she "better be home when he got there because he was mad." She told the officer, according to reports, that when Higgins got home she could tell that he was drunk so she hid and told the roommate to tell Higgins she wasn’t home. She reportedly told the officer that she heard the two arguing and heard Higgins hit the roommate.

The officer questioned Higgins who allegedly told him he was fishing all day and when he arrived home he was angry at his roommate so he hit him in the face with a closed fist.

Higgins was arrested and transported to the Newton County Detention Center where he was charged with battery.