Misleading article. You have to read all the way to the end to discover that Howard was protecting the *assailant*. The woman was the instigator of the fight. She has an arrest record and had a restraining order against her. Further, her victim was a neighbor so this wasn’t even domestic violence, just regular old assault.
My understanding is that both the man and the woman are regarded by police as aggressors in this case. The man has not been charged because there are questions as to his mental competence.
The woman has been charged with breach of an Apprehended Domestic Violence Order, which means it is considered a domestic violence case - this suggests there is a relationship between the two, because if they were simply neighbours, it would have been an Apprehended Personal Violence Order.
It will be interesting to see what happens at Court tomorrow (if it actually gets reported).