Greater Valley Area police say weekend was typical in regards to crime

Published 4:31 pm Monday, July 8, 2019

A busy but typical holiday weekend was the recap from most police stations related to the holiday weekend.

Major Mike Reynolds of the Valley Police Department said there was one driving under the influence of alcohol arrest and several bail jumping instances. According to the arrest reports for the city, there was also one public intoxication arrest.

Reynolds said the call volume was high, but nothing out of the ordinary for a holiday weekend.

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“It was typical for a holiday,” he said Monday. “Everything was pretty much normal.”

Lanett Police Patrol Commander Richard Casner echoed the sentiment from Reynolds, saying there was a high amount of call volume, which was probably brought on by the extended weekend.

He said Lanett had a few driving under the influence of alcohol arrests, but Casner said that’s typical when the weekend basically started on Wednesday night for some.

“Everybody sort of spread it out over the long weekend,” he said. “There were a lot of calls for fireworks going off and people calling it in as shots fired.”

He said the number of domestic violence calls was also high, which can most likely be attributed to larger amounts of alcohol being consumed throughout the weekend.

Lanett did have a shooting incident Friday, which resulted in Arsenio Floyd being charged with attempted murder after a man was shot three times in Lanett. After the incident, West Point Police received a 911 call from a woman at a liquor store in West Point saying she shot her ex-boyfriend in Lanett. Police learned this information was false and arrested the woman, Charnesse Hightower of Columbus, with first-degree hindering prosecution.

The police also learned Floyd was the shooter and obtained an arrest warrant. On Saturday morning, the Columbus Police Department learned of Floyd’s location and made an arrest. Floyd is current awaiting extradition back to Alabama.

According to arrest reports, there were six domestic violence incidents throughout the weekend that were recorded — four of those calls occurred on the Fourth of July.

In West Point, there was one arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol, public drunkenness and open container.