Nunchuck attack defendant makes her case
By Kyle Perrotti kperrotti@themountaineer.com Mar 1, 2019


Westwood apartment
NEIGHBORS — The distance between Gentry’s and Smith’s apartments, seen here, is only about 30 feet.

Neighbors sometimes feud, but since Kathleen Smith moved in next to Janet Gentry, it’s been almost constant.

The Mountaineer wrote last week about the women’s latest feud, which ended with Gentry being charged with assault with a deadly weapon for using nunchucks on Smith during an altercation. But not long after the story, which featured quotes from Smith, ran in print, Gentry reached out to tell her side of the story.

Much of what she wanted told appeared in the incident report, which was filled out by Deputy Kevin Brooks, who first responded on the scene.

“Upon arrival, I observed five individuals arguing amongst themselves and posturing like they were going to fight,” Brooks noted in the incident report. “I gave several commands for everyone to separate. It took several attempts of this to get compliance.”

Gentry said the incident began when she observed Smith, along with her boyfriend, Bobby McCollough, who had recently moved into the apartments after being displaced by the Suyeta Park Apartment fire, embroiled in a heated argument with her son. At one point, she was afraid McCollough was going to assault Smith’s son. That’s when Gentry called 911.

“She was standing in the yard when she said, ‘you need to go on down the road,’” McCollough said.

Smith said her altercation with Gentry escalated because she was frustrated with what she perceived as her neighbor’s intrusion into a personal matter.

“I told her, ‘you need to quit putting your nose in other people’s business,’” Smith said.

Gentry said that when she became the target of the heated language from McCollough and his son, who was also on the scene, her son stepped in and told the them “don’t talk to my mom like that.”

Although it isn’t clear who pulled out what first, before long, Gentry’s son had a knife out, while McCollough and his son had a baseball bat and tire iron.

“Clayton (McCullough) was trying to get my son to hit him, and Bobby told me ‘we’re going to make your son bleed,” Gentry said, a claim that McCollough firmly denied.

That’s when the altercation between the two women occurred.

“She hit me from behind,” Gentry recalled, a fact Smith didn’t deny. However, what’s more unclear is whether Smith brandished a hypodermic needle as a weapon.


Black Nunchaku isolated over white

“At some point, Mrs. Smith pushed Mrs. Gentry down and was waving the hypodermic needle at her,” the incident report reads. “Mrs. Gentry received a set of nunchucks and hit Mrs. Smith in the back several times.”

But Smith denied that happening.

“I showed them there wasn’t no needle,” she said.

While the back and forth between the parties involved in the altercation paints an unclear picture of who might be to blame, at the end of the day, it was Gentry along with Smith’s son and daughter-in-law who were hit with misdemeanor charges.
weird story.