A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ranger was attacked Sunday while issuing an alcohol citation at Burton Mill Park off Gaines Ferry Road in Hall County.

The ranger, whose name wasn’t available, was patrolling the park when he saw some people with alcoholic beverages in a prohibited area, said Sgt. Stephen Wilbanks, spokesman for the Hall County Sheriff’s Office.

While issuing a citation for the offense, the ranger “was physically attacked by one of the subjects,” Wilbanks said.

“After being struck multiple times, the ranger deployed pepper spray against the subject to end the assault.”

Deputies arrested Charlie Brown Jordan, 24, of Suwanee, without further incident and took him to the Hall County Jail, where he was charged with obstruction of an officer and placed on federal hold for possible additional charges from the corps.

The fine for the ticket Jordan received is $75.

Tim Rainey, operations manager at Lake Lanier, said the corps will talk with the U.S. Attorney’s Office concerning assault charges.

The ranger was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, where X-rays and other tests showed no problems. He will be on light duty for a couple of days but he is otherwise OK, Rainey said.

The incident, which took place about 3:15 p.m., comes just days after Rainey told The Times that the corps had to reassign shoreline rangers to working the parks because of increased rowdiness and crowds.

The shoreline staff normally works on issues related to Lanier’s shoreline management plan, including the issuing of dock permits.

“We were getting into a situation with (park) visitation where our rangers were about to get overrun and (had) lost control of some of the parks,” Rainey said.

“There were large groups of people on the shoreline ... with some behavior that we don’t desire at the lake. And for one ranger on night shift to walk out there and address them is not safe.”