COVINGTON, Ga. — The Covington Police Department took to Facebook Monday evening to inform residents that it was investigating a fight that apparently occurred Friday night in Covington between at least two men and another individual identified in the original Facebook post as “an autistic boy.”
“We have received numerous messages in regards to the video of the fight that occurred Friday night,” the CPD’s Facebook message said. “We are investigating it and there is much more to this incident than the video depicts.”
Two short video clips of the altercation were included on the now-widely circulated Facebook post and it features two men — the Facebook post identifies them as Ryan Redding and Paul Edge — taunting the third individual while commenters in the post’s comment thread attempt to identify others who appear in the video.
One video shows two men on top of another, punching him repeatedly in the head and face while another bystander appears to pull them off of him. The second video shows the alleged victim walking away while two other men — one shirtless — follow behind taunting him. At one point, the shirtless individual knocks off the other’s hat and pushes him several times, causing him to fall to the ground.
Attempts by The Covington News to reach out to the Covington Police Department for comment and more information have gone unreturned as of Tuesday at our print edition deadline. But the department shared more information on its own Facebook page Monday evening.
“Through the investigation, it has been determined that the young man that appears to be the victim in the video was actually the initial instigator,” the CPD said in a Facebook post. “He had struck several people, and was being retaliated against.”
The CPD went on to say that after speaking with the alleged victim “on several occasions,” there is “no confirmation that he is autistic.” The post continues, saying that the alleged victim in the case was “actually a homeless man who had recently came to Covington,” and has had several prior run-ins with police in the last couple of weeks, including an arrest Sunday night after fleeing from CPD in a stolen vehicle.
As for the video in question that sparked initial concern, Covington Police said the video “was not available at the time” that the officers originally came on the scene, but since the posting of the video, CPD says charges will follow, although it wasn’t immediately clear what those charges would be or who would be charged.
As of Monday morning, the original video of the fight which was posted on Facebook by Scott Dunn had close to 2,000 comments and 2,000 shares.
“This is awful (sic),” Dunn said in the original post. “These two boys Ryan Redding & Paul Edge in Covington, Ga, picking on an autistic boy and beating the boy up. What’s even worse is how the Covington Police Dept. handled the situation, and what they said about the boy which I won’t (sic) say on here. Thought these boys wanted to be famous, so let’s make them famous.”
The alleged victim in this case is now currently in the Newton County Detention Center.
