BUCKHANNON – A southern Upshur County man was arrested Monday after allegedly hitting someone in the head with a garden hoe.

McKinley S. Riffle, 27, of Rock Cave, was arrested for malicious wounding, a felony.

According to the criminal complaint in the Upshur County Magistrate Clerk’s Office filed by deputy Dakota Linger with the Upshur County Sheriff’s Office on May 30, 2022, Linger responded to McDowell Lane for a domestic disturbance. When Linger arrived on scene and spoke with Riffle, Riffle told officers he got mad and hit the male victim over the head with a hoe.

When Linger spoke with the victim, the victim said he had been sitting outside with his girlfriend “minding his own business and all of a sudden” Riffle allegedly smacked him with a hoe, causing serious bodily injury, the police report states. The victim’s girlfriend began yelling for the cops, so a relative called 911 and told the E911 Upshur County Communication Center that the victim had been struck in the head and was bleeding profusely.

Upshur County Magistrate Alan Suder set bail at $30,000 cash only. The penalty for a conviction of malicious wounding is confinement in the state penitentiary for not less than one year nor more than five years or alternatively, imprisonment in jail for up to 12 months and a fine of up to $500.