Athens man charged with invading neighbor’s home and attacking him with baseball bat

Ibrahima Ousmane Sow

By Joe Johnson

An Athens man was arrested early Sunday in the immediate aftermath of his alleged intrusion of a neighbor’s home and attacking him with a baseball bat.

According to a report by the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, the incident occurred as follows:

Officers responded soon after midnight to investigate a report of an aggravated assault at a Produce Lane residence.

Upon arrival they stopped 35-year-old Ibrahima Sow as he was slowly leaving in his pickup truck.

He gave a story about a fight that he claimed had been instigated by his neighbor, Antonio Wells.

Sow said he was changing his truck’s tires when one rolled away and struck a vehicle on Well’s property.

An altercation ensued in which Sow said he was dragged into a she’d and got away and fled when it appeared he was going to be attacked with an aluminum baseball bat.

Interviews of the victim and a witness, however, along with the crime scene itself, told an altogether different story.

Sow’s body didn’t have any injuries or other evidence of being assaulted, his clothing wasn’t dirty from having been dragged on the ground.

The witness had separated the other men when they were fighting, and he saw Sow leave and return to Well’s home where he entered with a bat that he used to strike the neighbor in the head.

The arrest warrant describes a crime scene that had “blood splatter on interior walls and disarray of (damaged) home furniture due to physical altercation and aggravated assault.”

Wells had apparent visible injuries, descriptions of which were redacted from the police incident report.

It also turned out that the incident with the tire rolling into a vehicle on Well’s property had occurred much earlier in the day.

Sow was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, first-degree home invasion, and criminal trespass/damage to property.

He is in pretrial detention without bail pending an April 2 bail hearing.