A Fulton County deputy sheriff is assigned to administrative duties after his pre-dawn arrest Monday morning in the city of South Fulton.
Arrest warrants say officers were called to a handle crowd control in the midst of a large altercation at Harold’s Chicken and Ice Bar, 5495 Old National Highway, sometime after 3:00 a.m.
Police report multiple intoxicated people, and a dust-up between two groups seemed focused on two individuals. The root of the fight was unclear, but someone told police that it involved “the Saints fan.”
Officers say they told the arguing people to leave, but one man, later identified as Byron Thomas, argued with officers and then resisted when they tried to take him into custody. The crowd jumped into the fracas and tried to pull Thomas away from police.
“Multiple unidentified people grabbed officers’ arms and crowded our space as we were trying to detain Mr. Thomas,” the report states. “Officers continued to struggle to detain Mr. Thomas due to him tensing his body and refusing to place his hand behind his back.”