2 Bassett women arrested in uptown brawl

Two Bassett women have been arrested with another woman was beaten unconscious at a late night street brawl in uptown Martinsville.

Iquasia Tennille Martin, 24, and Shykira Tejae Price, 21, have both been charged with attempted malicious wounding and assault and battery by mob. Martin was also charged with an additional count of assault and battery and disorderly conduct.

A criminal complaint on file in the Martinsville General District Clerk's Office from Detective S.L. Rogers states that Martinsville Police Officer Kevin Harmon responded to Sovah Health in Martinsville on Sept. 29 after the assault had been reported.

"The victim stated to Officer Harmon that she had been 'jumped' on Main Street near the Kornna Kitchen by multiple females in the early hours. Kornna Kitchen is located at 37 East Main Street," Rogers wrote. The victim "stated that she also lost consciousness during the scuffle after being kicked in the face."

The following day, Harmon met with a person at the Martinsville Police Department, who provided a video of the incident that was recorded to the social media site Snapchat. In the video, Harmon observed the victim standing on Main Street near the Martinsville Bulletin parking lot arguing with two females, one wearing a white shirt and the other in an orange shirt, Rogers wrote.

The Bulletin obtained a copy of the video and the woman in the white shirt is seen striking another woman in the face with her fist. The woman in the orange shirt is seen striking the same woman with her fist multiple times from behind.

Later in the video, Harmon observed the victim fighting with another female in all black attire. The female wearing the red shirt is then seen striking the victim multiple times with her fist from behind. The woman being struck is then seen falling backward as the woman in the red shirt continued to punch her in the face with her fist, wrote Rogers.

The video then shows the woman in the red shirt standing over the woman on the ground and kicking her in the face.

"The female in the red shirt is then observed kicking at a downward angle in the face twice from a standing position, rendering her unconscious on the sidewalk. The female in all black is then observed kicking [the victim] in the face in a downward angle from a standing position as she remained unconscious," Rogers wrote.

Six days after the incident, Kornna Kitchen proprietor Rico Johnson addressed what had occurred in a live Facebook post on his restaurant's Facebook page.

"We do have an issue here with certain groups of people. Those issues rely in the actual persons themselves," said Johnson. "The issues that happen outside the Kornna Kitchen is not a Kornna Kitchen issue."

Johnson said the woman who was beaten unconscious outside of his restaurant had been removed from his establishment earlier that evening.

"The young lady that had been removed here that got in an incident out there; she didn't have one drink. I was the bartender," Johnson said. "I poured the drink, and she spilled the drink. She never had one drink here in the Kornna Kitchen, so alcohol did not play a part in that brutal beating outside that was really bad."

Johnson emphasized that he was running a restaurant, not a club, and did not "specialize in alcohol and dancing."

"She was not drunk, but she was very irate," said Johnson. "We had to ask her to leave our premises. That incident happened 47 minutes after she was removed out of this building."

Johnson compared the incident to other acts of violence that have occurred in the past at other restaurants in Martinsville and Henry County.

"There's a fighting that happened here last weekend and I get over 12 agents here," Johnson said. "There was a fighting at Applebee's and they didn't get an investigation the way I got an investigation."

The day after the incident occurred, State ABC agents and local law enforcement were seen in and just outside of the Kornna Kitchen in the late afternoon.

Rogers wrote in his report that the woman who was beaten suffered contusions to the face and head and suffered a distal fibula fracture during the incident.

The distal fibula is the prominent bone on the outside of the ankle.

Both Martin and Price were due to be arraigned in Martinsville General District Court on Thursday, but the arraignments for both women were continued until Jan. 16.

Bill Wyatt (276) 591-7543

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