A Mount Sterling man was charged Friday with murder after allegedly hitting a Jeffersonville city official with a pickup truck Thursday night, Montgomery County Sheriff Fred Shortridge said.

Joseph Julian, 48, also faces charges of driving under the influence and driving on a suspended license.

Julian is charged in the death of David Ballard, 51. Ballard, the Jeffersonville commissioner of parks, said David Amburgey, the city's commissioner of streets and roads.

"He was an awful good fellow," Amburgey said.

Ballard owned a barber shop on Camargo Road in Mount Sterling, in the same building where Julian lived, Shortridge said.

The collision happened on Camargo Road.

"There was some bad blood between the two," Shortridge said. Investigators were trying to determine why.

"There were some verbal arguments. Something was brewing," Shortridge said. "We're thinking David was there to confront Joseph on some statements that Joseph had made previously, and Joseph rammed the vehicle into David."

Ballard was struck by a 1986 Dodge pickup truck, he said.

Julian was being held in the Montgomery County Regional Jail.

Greg Kocher: (859) 231-3305. Twitter: @HLpublicsafety.