Cigarette butt causes brawl among 4 neighbors

Four neighbors face charges after a tag-team-style rumble broke out over a cigarette butt that a guest casually tossed into a yard, police said Wednesday.

The fight involved two parties, a brother and sister and a husband and wife. At least three of the participants went to the hospital after Friday afternoon's melee. "Now, this is all over a cigarette butt," Mathews said.

A guest of a 42-year-old man smoked as they stood in the yard and talked. When the guest finished the cigarette, he flicked it toward the edge of the yard, Mathews said. A neighbor, 24, saw the butt and began yelling about it.

"According to several residents of the neighborhood, (the two neighbors) argued about this for the entire day," Mathews said. During one of these arguments, the 42-year-old man's 32-year-old sister, who lives across the street, called the neighbor an expletive.

"(The neighbor) then tells her that he's not going to fight a woman, but when his wife gets home, he's going to bring her down there to whoop her a—," Mathews said.

As promised, the neighbor later showed up at the sister's house with his 27-year-old wife in tow. A fight broke out between the women, during which the sister allegedly pulled out a pen and stabbed the wife once in the chest and once in the lower abdomen.

The husband intervened at that point. Grabbing the sister by her hair and shoulders, he threw her down on the concrete walkway and began to drag her around, police said.

The brother came out of his house and saw the husband beating up his sister, so he ran across the street and pulled the husband off her, punching him several times.

The husband pulled "something" out of his pocket, police said, and punched the brother in the face, causing him to stagger backward. The husband then punched him several more times.

The fight ended when the husband helped his bleeding wife off the ground and took her down the street to call an ambulance. The wife, who faces a harassment charge, was taken to Decatur General Hospital, where she was treated for two puncture wounds.

The sister, who faces a third-degree assault charge, went by private vehicle to Decatur General Hospital. She told police she suffered head and back injuries when she was thrown to the pavement.

Her brother, who is charged with harassment, also went to the hospital, suffering a broken nose, a broken wrist, and possibly a fractured orbit around his left eye. Article here.