Monday evening, Crossville police responded to Heather Ridge Circle for a report of an 81-year-old man who’d been assaulted with a cane. The elderly victim was attended to by EMS and Crossville Fire personnel. Officers noted a slanted red mark across the man’s chest where he had been struck by the cane.

The victim said a man exited an apartment as he was walking along the sidewalk and began cussing him. According to the arrest report, the man “continued yelling that people were getting too close to his grass in the apartment complex and he was mad at everybody that was in his grass.”

Police identified the man as 59-year-old Robert Allen Northcutt. One officer knocked at the door and another officer at a window saw Northcutt emerge from a bedroom and crawl to the front door to open it. Officers noticed a small scrape on the tip of his nose that was bleeding; they also noted a strong odor of alcohol emanating from Northcutt, who appeared to be highly intoxicated.

Northcutt denied hitting the victim, was extremely uncooperative with the officers and railed against one of them for letting his dog run out the front door.

Officers did not find a cane in Northcutt’s apartment, and they had to support Northcutt in walking to the patrol vehicle because of his extreme intoxication.

The victim, who declined to be transported to Cumberland Medical Center, said he wanted to press charges.

Northcutt was arrested for felony aggravated assault.