By Joe Johnson
A homeless man reportedly was arrested early Saturday after he assaulted an officer in downtown Athens and damaged City Hall.
According to an Athens-Clarke County police report, officers who were finishing their shift were lined up to enter the College Avenue police substation at about midnight when 29-year-old Charles Romando Murray cut through the line and began striking an officer in the back and screaming at him.
When the officer pushed away Murray, the man assumed a fighting stance with his hands clenched as though he was going to hit the officer again, according to the report, at which time another officer grabbed Murray and pulled him to the ground, where he continued attempts to strike multiple officers and resisted being handcuffed while cursing and screaming incoherently.
After officers noticed that Murray had multiple lacerations to his forearm, they traced a blood trail from the substation to exterior doors at City Hall on the Hancock Avenue side of the building, the report noted.
“Both of the doors had large glass windows that had been busted in by Mr. Murray punching through them and blood was located on the glass of the remaining portions of the window as well,” an officer wrote in the report.
Police said that after being transported to the hospital for treatment of his injuries, he was booked into the county jail on charges of second-degree burglary, interference with government property, second-degree criminal damage to property, simple battery of a police officer, and obstruction of law enforcement.
He was being held without bond as of Tuesday afternoon.