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Name:
Rhodes, Samantha Ashley
Date of Booking:
12/14/2025
Reason(s) For Booking:
DISORDERLY CONDUCT
BATTERY
Officer’s Narrative:
[Please note: The following is a direct transcription from the official initial incident report. The Georgia Gazette does not fix any spelling or grammatical errors that may exist. Any changes or redactions made by our staff are placed inside brackets. Some errors may exist. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The topics discussed may be sensitive to some readers. Discretion is advised.]
[NARRATIVE #1 on December 13, 2025]
While investigating a fight in progress at Wire Park (1725 Electric Avenue), an additional fight broke out. It was discovered the details of the original call, was the reason the second fight broke out.
The details for the first fight: a group of older children, approximately 13 years-old, were supposedly picking on a younger child that had a mental health disorder. An adult female approached the group of teens, and began cussing at them. Another, unrelated, female stepped in and confronted the agitated female, asking her not to cuss at the children. An argument ensued, a fight broke out, but it was undetermined exactly what happened. All parties involved in that altercation were trespassed from the property and left the scene.
Before law enforcement was able to leave the scene, a second fight broke out. According to, Samantha Rhodes, she and her friend were trying to walk into a restaurant to use the restroom when they were confronted by a tall man, in a green shirt, who was later identified as Charles Tankersley, saying they were the ones who started the previous mentioned fight, and they needed to go somewhere else to use the bathroom. Samantha and her friend engaged in an argument with Charles, and that’s when I was called to come defuse the situation.
As I walked up to Samantha and Charles, I began asking what was wrong. That’s when I heard another fight behind me. I turned around to see Lt. Higginbotham and Sgt. Holl fighting with a male on the ground. The male was later identified as Austin Shackleford. The crowd began flooding toward this fight, so I was trying to keep others back, which caused my attention to be taken away from Samantha and Charles. During this time of distraction, Samantha punch Charles in the face two times, according to others standing around. I did not observe her strike Charles. Samantha was immediately placed into handcuffs and admitted she punched him because he wouldn’t stop, “coming at me.”
Charles was ultimately arrested, also, because he was engaged in the verbal altercation, that led to a physical assault, even though he was the victim of being assaulted. Due to Charles being engaged in the initial verbal altercation, with Samantha, this escalated the entire situation to the point law enforcement had to intervene, which caused a breach of peace.
During the time I was placing Samantha into handcuffs, there was another female, standing extremely close to us, that put her opinion into the incident. Her opinion being, “Yeah, b*tch! You deserve that, you f*cking b*tch!” These words were said in front of two children, below 14 years old, that just so happened to be standing right behind the female, Courtney Cirou. Courtney was also placed into handcuffs.
Samantha and Courtney were both escorted to the parking lot and placed into a patrol vehicle. Once the scene was de-escalated, all information and testimonies were obtained. All parties admitted to having consumed an unknown amount of alcoholic beverages. Samantha admitted to having punched Charles. Charles stated he was not involved in any other way, other than the initial verbal altercation with Samantha, but wished to press charges on Samantha for punching him.
Courtney claimed she was not involved at all, but decided to scream curse words toward Samantha, assisting with the breach of peace. The actions of all parties involved occurred in front of children who were standing around watching. The ages of the children who viewed the entire incident varied between 0 and 14+.
All three parties were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. However, Samantha was charged with Battery (misdemeanor) and disorderly conduct. All parties were transported to the Oconee County Jail, and booked accordingly.
All four parties mentioned in this case, were issued criminal trespass warnings for a period of 2 years.
The investigation was recorded on body worn camera.
**When adding Charles to this report, as a suspect of disorderly conduct, I ran into an issue when adding his name profile as a victim of Battery. The RMS program would not allow me to add his name profile as the offender of one charge, and a victim of another charge, in the same report and under the same case number. Therefore, I only added his name profile as a victim of Battery, because the charge requires a victim in order for the report to be submitted without error. I explained the probable cause of why he was arrested, in the above narrative.
[End of Narrative]
[NARRATIVE #2 on December 13, 2025]
On 12/13/2025 around 2126 hours I Lt. Higginbotham along with Sgt. Holl and Deputy Ward were standing outside Lola’s inside Wire Park after completing a call for service. While outside a woman came out to us and advised that a woman was arguing with her husband and wanted us to sperate them.
Deputy Ward and Sgt. Holl began talking to the group arguing while I continued to speak to the complainant. While doing so a male pushed between the complainant and myself going toward the group arguing while he yelled and cursed.
I grabbed the male by both his arms from behind in an attempt to stop him. The male continued forward and tensed his arms. Due to the male not obeying commands and continuing towards the group that was already arguing I decided to detain the male. Due to the male being non-compliant he was taken to the ground where he was handcuffed. While being taken to the ground the male sustained “road rash” to his left elbow and the right said of his face.
The male, Austin Shackelford, was secured in the back of my patrol vehicle where he requested to speak to me. I read him his Miranda Warning where he stated that he agreed to speak and answer questions. Shackelford stated that he saw a man arguing with his wife and ran over to defend her. He advised that he did not notice the deputies that were speaking to the group and apologized for pushing past me on his way to the group of people. While speaking to Shackelford I was able to smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his person and he was observed earlier drinking in the same area.
See Deputy Wards narrative for further regarding charges.