WAYCROSS, Ga. – A Waycross Police Department detective has been placed on administrative leave after a physical altercation that left the grandmother of his child with a cut to her face, according to a police report obtained by News4JAX.
The incident involving Waycross Police Department Detective Marc Horne unfolded around 2:40 p.m. on Thursday, outside Southeast Georgia Pediatrics at 1701 Boulevard Square. Officers arriving on scene found several women in nursing scrubs clustered around a woman later identified as Kisha Smith, who sat on the concrete holding a cloth to her face.
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The report said Smith, who is one of the grandmothers of Horne’s child, briefly removed the cloth to show what she described as a jaw injury and a small cut on the left side of her upper lip with a small amount of blood.
Detective Horne and his mother were standing about 20 yards away when officers arrived. A witness told officers, “He can say what he wanna say, but he punched her in the face,” according to the report.
Police reviewed two cellphone videos: one recorded by Horne’s mother and a second recorded on Detective Horne’s phone. The recordings, the report said, show Smith approaching vehicles in the clinic parking lot and attempting to open the rear door of Detective Horne’s pickup, apparently to retrieve an infant. In the footage, Horne can be heard repeatedly telling Smith to back away and not to go near his mother’s vehicle. One of the videos was posted online and was circulating following the altercation.
The report said Smith slapped a phone out of Horne’s hand, sending it to the pavement with the camera facing down, and then charged at him. Detective Horne told officers he struck Smith one time to stop her from attacking him.
In the videos and in officer interviews, Horne can be heard warning Smith she might be arrested; Smith told officers she wanted him arrested and at one point said she would go to jail “because guess who’s going too for pushing me,” the report said.
Smith told News4JAX that Horne punched her in the face. Horne told officers he felt threatened as the grandmother approached him.
“There’s no way he could consider me a threat,” Smith told News4JAX. “He’s a trained fighter and a trained police officer. He’s dealt with way bigger and meaner than me, I’m sure. But in no way was I endangering him in any kind of way. I had a bag full of toys in one hand and a little cup for my grandbaby in the other that was full of water.”
Witnesses in nursing attire tended to Smith in the parking lot and later provided statements to officers, the report notes. Emergency medical services were called to evaluate Smith at the scene.
No arrests were made at the scene, and the Waycross Police Department informed its command staff before turning the case over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) for further review.
News4JAX spoke to Horne’s attorney, but he said he was not willing to offer a comment at this time.
Detective Horne has been placed on administrative leave pending the completion of both the Waycross Police Department’s internal investigation and the concurrent investigation being conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which I called shortly after the incident. We will not be releasing any additional information at this time to protect the integrity of the investigation.
Waycross Police Chief Tommy Cox
Earlier this year, Horne was placed on leave after Tristen Music, Smith’s daughter, accused Horne of domestic violence, according to media reports. Music told WSAV their relationship lasted over a year, and they have one 7-month-old child together. But Horne returned to duty in April following an internal investigation.
According to a release from WPD, “Information indicates that the detective was not the primary aggressor. The evidence further indicates that his actions were in response to an immediate threat involving an armed individual, during which he attempted to disarm the subject to protect himself.”
Music claimed the statement from WPD was false, and she was not armed during the altercation.