Violence mars Christmas for some
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on January 2, 2017 10:07 AM
Several violent incidents happened on Christmas Day in the county, ranging from a shots fired incident and domestic assaults to an assault on two sheriff's deputies.
Deputies were attempting to serve warrants on James Matthew Brogden, 31, of 107 Lindsey Brook Lane, Pikeville, on Christmas Day around 2 p.m. when Brogden allegedly assaulted the two deputies.
According to an incident report, deputies told Brogden to turn around and put his hands behind his back, and when they approached him to handcuff him he whipped around and grabbed a deputy by the throat and began choking him.
Another deputy helping serve the warrant immediately pulled Brogden off the other deputy, but Brogden then began assaulting the other deputy.
This continued until one of the deputies drew their taser, at which point Brogden immediately surrendered, the report said.
Brogden is charged with resisting a direct order and assault on a law enforcement officer. He was put in jail under a $12,500 secured bond.
Deputies responded to stray bullets striking a house at 308 Linen Lane some time between 11:50 p.m. Christmas Eve and 12:40 p.m. Christmas Day, when the incident was reported to authorities.
Lorraine Ann Edwards, 59, reported to the sheriff's office she was lying in her bed watching television around 2:30 a.m. Christmas morning when she heard what sounded like gunshots outside her home, an incident report said.
Edwards told authorities she heard vehicles driving off at a high rate of speed and it sounded like something had struck her house, but she did not want to go outside to check when it happened.
When deputies responded to the scene they found one bullet in a bathroom inside the home and seven spent shell casings in the middle of Sami Street near Edwards' home.
There were around half a dozen physical assaults Christmas Day, according to incident reports, spread out through the holiday. None resulted in serious injuries, according to reports.
Maj. Tom Effler with the Wayne County Sheriff's Office said he could not assuredly say if this was the highest number of violent incidents on Christmas Day in recent memory, but he said deputies on patrol had told him they felt the volume of domestic calls was unusually high.
"It seemed like there were an abnormal number of domestics -- nothing really physical, but verbal anyway," Effler said. "I can't say it's the worst it's been or anything because I'm not on patrol, but I've heard the patrol guys talking like it was a crazy weekend."