Apr. 12—A homeless woman told to leave the benches in front of City Hall on Monday walked across the street and punched a woman who was leaving a restaurant, according to Brunswick police.

Casta Smith, 38, was arrested and charged with battery for the alleged attack that sent the victim to the hospital to be treated for her injuries, the police report said.

A daily activity log from the Brunswick Police Department indicates Smith had been told by officers she couldn't sleep on a bench. Not long after that, she walked across the street to Maggie Mae's restaurant, 606 Gloucester St., after dropping her belongings and hit the woman "in the left side of the face, causing her to fall on a concrete flower pot and bruise her back," the report said. The victim was taken to Southeast Georgia Health System's hospital in Brunswick for treatment.

A witness told police that Smith had gathered her things and gone to Mary Ross Park, where she was arrested a short time later, the report said. She was released later Monday on her own recognizance, according to records from the Glynn County Detention Center.

Smith told police her address was 1101 Gloucester St., the address of The Well, a daytime homeless shelter and hospitality center. Officials with FaithWorks, which operates The Well, said Tuesday that Smith had been to the shelter twice, once in August 2022 and a second time in September 2022. She had not been receiving mail at The Well, they said.

That doesn't stop Nancy Wilkes, who owns Maggie Mae's with her husband Rick and daughter Maggie, from believing The Well is responsible for the increase she has seen in vagrancy and the recent spike in violence carried out by homeless people.

Monday's incident marks the fifth involving homeless people and violence since Feb. 27 in downtown Brunswick. Other incidents were the stabbing of a downtown merchant, an armed robbery of a bike, another armed robbery with a machete and a home invasion and rape of a minor.

Smith, who is facing a misdemeanor battery charge, is the only one of the six people arrested in connection with the attacks who has been released from jail. The other alleged assailants are facing felonies for their alleged attacks and are still in jail, Glynn County Detention Center records show.

Wilkes and her family have owned businesses in downtown Brunswick for 30 years. She said there used to be a small contingency of "homegrown" homeless people who merchants knew and who never caused any serious trouble.

Since The Well opened in 2015, Wilkes said she has seen more and more vagrants come in from out of town, many of whom are dropped off by other municipalities, in hopes of accessing services at The Well. The problem is, those services aren't what downtown business owners were told they would be prior to The Well's opening, she said.

Wilkes listed several things like mental health services, GED classes and other things she was told The Well would offer that she hasn't seen come to fruition in any meaningful way.

"This is what we were sold, and we bought it," Wilkes said.

Officials at The Well officials have said they accept all people who are without shelter, but that they can and do refuse to serve anyone who doesn't follow the rules.

That may be true, Wilkes said, but when the "trouble makers" are told not to come back to The Well, they become everyone else's problem.

That is now impacting not only her business but all downtown businesses, Wilkes said.

"We have just gotten downtown right," she said of the recent surge of new businesses that has turned the Newcastle and Gloucester streets corridor into a hotspot of commercial activity.

Wilkes said it is time to hold The Well accountable for being a beacon that is attracting vagrants to the district. It is putting too much pressure on a maxed-out police department and fire department that are doing all they can to keep up, she said.

Wilkes wants the shelter to close.

"If The Well closes, I don't care if it's 'they'll just end up here, or there,'" Wilkes said. "I live in the county. We have homeless people out there too. We need to close The Well and do what we can to clean up."

Leaders at The Well have said that closing the shelter will only exacerbate the problem and that it serves law-abiding homeless individuals. They have also said recently that they are interested in moving it away from Gloucester Street, the main gateway into downtown Brunswick, but added that it could cost up to $5 million to build the kind of 24-hour, overnight facility people in the community have said is needed.

Regardless of whether The Well stays, goes or closes, Wilkes said the damage is done. There are more combative people on the streets than in her memory and something must be done to protect residents, visitors and business owners in downtown Brunswick, she said.

The issue has already cost thousands of dollars in security, lighting, staffing and lost business, she added.

"I have come to the realization at 70 years old that you can't help the people who don't want to be helped," Wilkes said.

She added that people who are arrested for attacks like the one Smith is alleged to have carried out on Monday need to spend more than just a few hours in jail.

"That is a slap in the face to me and a slap in the face to the woman who was punched," Wilkes said.