Domestic dispute ends at fire station’s front door

Published 5:00 am Tuesday, October 21, 2008

A domestic dispute just after lunch time Monday ended in anassault with a box cutter on the front lawn of Brookhaven FireDepartment’s Station Three on Industrial Park Road, authoritiessaid.

Police Chief Pap Henderson said Koera J. Washington, 19, of 662Halbert Heights Road, is being charged with three counts ofaggravated assault against Robert Powell II, also of Brookhaven, inthe incident. Henderson said he believes the two are romanticallyinvolved.

Officials said Powell drove down Industrial Park Drive from thedirection of North Jackson Street, with Washington tailing him in aseparate vehicle and ramming his truck as they went.

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Henderson said one of Washington’s counts was for when sherammed Powell’s truck at the intersection of North Jackson andIndustrial Park Drive. The second, he said, was for when she rammedhis vehicle again in a parking lot. The third was when sheassaulted him at the fire department with the box cutter.

Fire Chief Bob Watts said the couple passed the station in theirvehicles and circled a few times in the Fish Fry parking lot beforedriving across the front lawn and up to the front door of the firestation, where firefighters believe he was hoping to seekrefuge.

“It took place right at the fire department’s front door …within a few feet,” Watts said about the incident.

Officials said as Powell got out of his truck and tried to getto the door of the fire department, Washington cut him at leasttwice in the forearm with the box cutter before firefighters brokeup the fight. He was taken by ambulance to King’s Daughters MedicalCenter where he was treated and released.

Washington was arrested and taken to the Lincoln County Jail,where she posted bond around 4:30 p.m. Monday.

Henderson said the events leading up to the incident are underinvestigation.

“She wasn’t very clear on that,” he said. “She did say somethingto the effect of that he wasn’t acting right.”

Henderson said the investigation is still open, and that policewill be talking to Powell on Tuesday.