GREENE COUNTY, Ark. — Authorities in Greene County have charged a Paragould man with second-degree battery after an alleged assault left a man injured and bleeding.
On Sept. 9, deputies with the Greene County Sheriff’s Department responded to a report of a possible stabbing on County Road 625. Upon arrival, they found a 64-year-old man with significant head injuries, but investigators later determined the man had not been stabbed. Instead, according to an arrest affidavit, 31-year-old Kyle Grooms struck him in the face.
“The victim stated that this happened while traveling in his vehicle and he had kicked Grooms out of the truck while still on the road,” Detective Cameron Harrison stated in the affidavit. The injured man was transported by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment. His condition has not been disclosed.
Soon after the incident, an Arkansas State Police trooper stopped a vehicle near the intersection of Highways 141 and 34 in Beech Grove. Harrison stated that troopers identified Grooms as a backseat passenger. "Knowing of this incident, [the trooper] instructed him to exit the vehicle and placed him in handcuffs," Harrison noted in the affidavit.
Grooms was taken into custody and later transported to the Greene County Detention Center. On Sept. 10, Greene County District Court Judge Curtis Hitt found probable cause to charge Grooms with second-degree battery, a Class D felony.
Hitt set Grooms’ bond at $75,000 cash or surety and ordered him to have no contact with the victim. Grooms remains in custody as of the latest reports, awaiting further legal proceedings.