The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department suspects a father and son fight led to a mobile home fire Sunday in Newburg. Twenty-four-year-old Matthew Barnes and his 57-year-old father Walter Barnes reportedly had an altercation at the home Saturday evening.
Deputies say Walter Barnes locked his son out of the mobile home. Mathew Barnes then kicked in the front door and shot a type of pepper spray into his fathers eyes. Walter Barnes then got a loaded shotgun and shot it into the air outside the home in an attempt to scare his son off the property. Deputies believe Mathew Barnes then returned to the mobile home Sunday morning and set it on fire.
No one was there at the time of the fire and the mobile home was a total loss. Matthew Barnes is charged with arson and domestic assault. His dad has been arrested for reckless use of a firearm.
(Reporting by Randy Van, KCOB, Newton)