Law Enforcement Report

A Water Valley man is recovering from a gunshot wound after a shooting on County Road 58, south of the Sylva Rena community, Sunday night.

Ray Charles Hickinbottom, 43, was shot in the left leg during a confrontation with Eddie L. Southern, 36, of Abbeville at the home of Hickinbottom’s fiancée, Rochelle Polk, according to Sheriff Lance Humphries.

Sheriff’s Department officials allege that Southern, who is Polk’s ex-husband, brought the couple’s two children to the home at 649 CR 58 when the altercation began. Although Hickinbottom was armed, he did not fire his weapon and instead allegedly used it to fight off Southern by hitting him repeatedly with it.

 Hickinbottom also managed to hold Southern until deputies arrived, said Assistant Chief Deputy David Wallis, who was first on the scene.

Southern was charged with aggravated assault and is free on a $25,000 bond.

In other department news:

Two citations were issued at the Grand Palace nightclub, located on County Road 436 in the old Yalobusha Private Academy outside Coffeeville last Saturday night.

“We had been receiving numerous complaints from this establishment,” Humphreys said about the incident.

Informants were sent in to the club in a joint operation between the state’s Alcohol Beverage Control and the Yalobusha County Sheriff’s Department.

The club owner was cited for violating the county’s beer ordinance by deputies and cited by the ABC for a liquor violation, according to Humphreys.

“We shut the club down the night of the incident,” the sheriff added.

Humphreys also reported that deputies had been working in the county to make sure that beer is not being sold to minors and that businesses were complying with the county’s beer ordinance.

“We warned serveral businesses about the sign portion of the ordinance,” Humphreys said.