DURANT — An Achille man was charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon following a weekend stabbing in Calera.

Jason Paul Houston, 32, was charged Monday. He was arrested after Calera Police responded to a fight in the 600 block of South McKinley Street Saturday evening.

Police said that Christopher Epps was stabbed four times in the back and once under an arm.

When officers arrived, they encountered several people and one of them said he saw a man bleeding from the abdomen, who was trying to get away from two men who were cursing at him.

Police saw blood in the street and questioned Houston, who claimed Epps ran at him and he thought he had a knife. Houston told police they wrestled to the ground and Epps got up, said he had been cut and ran away.

A witness told police she saw Epps on the side of the road and two people were yelling at him. She saw that he was covered in blood and told him to get in her vehicle. Houston was brought in for questioning and he showed police where he had thrown the knife into a tree, an affidavit states.

He was booked into the Bryan County Jail. Epps was taken to the local hospital by a private vehicle and later flown to another hospital for treatment, according to police.