Twitter @ValerieRowell

An Evans man was arrested late Wednesday after his wife said he beat her with an ax handle.

Charles Carol Eatman, 79, of the 4600 block of La Pointe, was charged with aggravated assault.

Just before midnight Wednesday, Eatman’s 52-year-old son called authorities claiming Eatman and his mother were physically fighting. Eatman said he was sleeping and had no idea what deputies were talking about.

Eatman’s 77-year-old wife told deputies that they argued and her husband hit her with a wooden ax handle several times.

Twitter @ValerieRowell

A Martinez man was arrested early Tuesday accused of groping two women.

Javantroi Perez Walden, 33, of Wendell Lane, was charged with two counts of misdemeanor sexual battery.

A 21-year-old woman shopping at the Martinez Walmart called authorities late Monday claiming she was assaulted. She said a man in a red shirt and black pants grabbed her breast at about 11:45 p.m., then walked out of the store on Bobby Jones Expressway, according to a Columbia County Sheriff’s Office incident report.

A new technology gives area medics a helping hand in performing potentially lifesaving CPR.

Gold Cross Emergency Medical Service recently purchased the LUCAS 2 automated chest compression systems for ambulances in Columbia, Richmond and Burke counties.

When a patient goes into cardiac arrest, CPR provides the steady circulation needed to supply oxygen to the heart and brain. But CPR often proves taxing on even trained medics during a long, jostling ride in the back of an ambulance.

Twitter @ValerieRowell

A Grovetown City Councilman was recently indicted on federal bribery charges.

Leland J. “Sonny” McDowell, is accused of offering a kick-back to a former Alabama Department of of Public Safety employee in 2007.

McDowell and James E. Potts, of Montgomery, Ala., face a four-count indictment alleging bribery related to a program receiving federal funds, according to a statement from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office Middle District of Alabama.