Staff Report

A Batesville man who was arrested for discharging a firearm inside the city limits last week said he intends to pleads not guilty at his hearing it City Court on Jan. 16.

Dennis Clark Henderson, who lives at the Panola Apartments located at 107 Martin Luther King Dr., said police misreported the facts of the case. He said he did shoot a gun into the air, but it was only after he felt it was necessary to defend his property.

“They were not kids, one was a grown man,” Henderson said of the people who were reportedly arguing and fighting just outside his residence on the night of Jan. 5. Police arrested him after someone called to report a shot had been fired.

“They shouldn’t have been over there fighting, and they were damaging my personal property,” Henderson said. He said a grill belonging to him, and other items, were going to be damaged if the fighting continued.