By Joe Johnson
An Athens man was arrested last week for shooting a neighbor in the head, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.
On the night of June 16, a 25-year-old man and his girlfriend reportedly were hanging out on the front porch of their home on Firewood Street.
The 18-year-old girlfriend told officers that she and Duglas Alvanes were laughing and talking as they always do when 39-year-old Jose F. Castro, who lived down the street, came over and said, “Y’all keep laughing,” and made a comment to the woman that Alvanes cheats on her when she is away, according to the report.
When Alvanes stood up and told Castro to leave, Castro pulled out a small handgun and shot Alvanes in the forehead and then walked back to his home, according to the police report.
The first arriving officer found Alvanes sitting in the driveway of his brother’s home nearby, holding a shirt to his head. The officer noted in the police report that when removing the shirt to place gauze on the bullet’s entry wound, he noticed an exit wound just past the victim’s hairline.
Alvanes was transported by ambulance to Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center and Castro was booked into the county jail at 4:05 a.m. the next day on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated battery.
As of Friday morning, he continued to be detained without bail being set, according to the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office.