Nose-blowing man jailed

It all started with a man trying to blow his nose. He was using paper towels off of the maintenance cart at the Ashby MARTA station, however, and that’s when the police got involved. Alfred Murphy and another man walked up to one of the maintenance carts at the MARTA station on Monday afternoon, according to a police report. Murphy grabbed some paper towels from the cart and began blowing his nose.

A MARTA police officer saw Murphy and told him he couldn’t take those paper towels – they didn’t belong to him. Murphy kept on pulling the paper towels from the cart – and blowing his nose. The officer again told Murphy to stop. Murphy continued, saying because he paid his MARTA fare, he was entitled to the items on the cart.



The officer asked Murphy to leave. Murphy instead went to a MARTA police phone and “began to make incoherent statements about being assaulted and officers trying to kill him.” The MARTA police officer called for assistance.

Murphy “then became violent and began to struggle while holding on to the telephone receiver,” the police report said. He hit one officer in the face, cutting part of his forehead and area under his right eye. Murphy also punched the other officer in the nose, causing it to bleed. Officers arrested Murphy and discovered he was on probation. He was booked in the Fulton County Jail on two charges of battery, obstruction and hindering of a law enforcement officer and criminal trespassing.