A British journalist was reportedly assaulted last week while talking to a county resident about the upcoming trial of accused murder Edgar Ray Killen, the authorities said.
Killen is scheduled to stand trial on June 13 for the 1964 murders of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney who were in the county registering blacks to vote.
Officials said Andrew Buncombe, a Washington correspondent for The Independent, stopped at a house on County Road 515 to speak with a resident about the Killen trial when an elderly white male assaulted him with what appeared to be a metal pipe.
Road 515 is the road on which the civil rights workers were murdered and where Killen lives.
Sheriff Larry A. Myers said no investigation was conducted because Buncombe declined to file assault charges.
Buncombe said he walked into the yard Wednesday at about 2 p.m., and began a conversation about roses that were growing in the yard. When the reporter brought up the murders the man reached for the pipe from the back of a pick-up truck, Buncombe said.
Buncombe suffered a severe blow to his right hand and was hit on the back of one of his legs.
