A 51-year-old Mississippi man was arrested for biting off the nose of another person following a heated argument about a golf game, authorities say.
Mark Curtis Wells allegedly committed felony mayhem by assaulting the victim in the parking lot of a casino after a protracted golf-related dispute boiled over.
The Bay St. Louis Police Department said that the incident occurred on Monday night of Nov. 28 in the parking lot of the Hollywood Casino, a Gulf Coast resort that offers hotel lodgings, casino activities and golf.
“Upon arrival, a victim was discovered with a disfiguring facial injury,” authorities said. “The investigation determined that [the] suspect, Mark Curtis Wells, bit the nose off of the victim.”
Other publications have identified the victim as a male. Police said that further investigation revealed that the dispute over golf spanned several hours that day and involved multiple people.
“Officers learned that prior to the act of mayhem by Wells, an argument had started regarding a golf game played at the neighboring Bridges Golf Course,” said a press release with information attributed to Chief J. Toby Schwartz. “The argument continued throughout the day amongst several of the golf participants until it culminated in the casino parking lot.”
Cops alleged that the suspect fled the scene in a Tesla after gnawing on a human’s nose in violation of § 97-3-59. The Mississippi mayhem statute specifically notes that mutilating or disfiguring someone’s nose is punishable by as many as seven years in prison:
Every person who, from premeditated design or with intent to kill or commit any felony, shall mutilate, disfigure, disable or destroy the tongue, eye, lip, nose, or any other limb or member of any person, shall be guilty of mayhem, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not more than seven years or in the county jail not less than six months.
Although the initial press release said that Wells was at large, cops said in an update that the suspect was arrested on Wednesday, Nov. 30.
It’s not the first time this year that someone down South has been accused of biting another person’s nose in close proximity to a sporting activity. That alleged incident after a college football game in Arkansas led Beyond Meat’s then-COO to leave the company.
At the time of this writing, it remains unclear what exactly set off the golf beef.
[Images via Pexels, Bay St. Louis Police Department]
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