A 70-year-old Massachusetts man allegedly tried to drown an injured 21-year-old during a violent clash over a jet ski at a community lake boat ramp in a chaotic, caught-on-camera brawl.
Steven Dana is accused of attempted murder, strangulation, and assault and battery on a disabled person for the alleged attack on Matthew Duffy at Lake Maspenock’s Sandy Beach in Hopkinton, Mass., on Wednesday.
Duffy and his friends were using the boat ramp with their jet ski when Dana, a resident on the lake, became agitated by the noise coming from the motorized craft and attempted to kick the group out of the water, according to a police report viewed by WCVB.
Duffy has been using crutches to get around after he was severely injured in an accident a few months ago.
The group of friends had been recording the interaction with Dana on a GoPro when the older man became increasingly upset during the confrontation with Duffy, according to the video obtained by the outlet.
“Let me have fun with my jetski,” Duffy told Dana, who told the younger man to take the craft to another lake.
Duffy refused and claimed he lived nearby and was allowed to use the lake. Some of the younger lake users began to egg Dana on, saying, “You’re not going to do s–t.”
Dana threatened to call the police “again” before asking if Duffy wanted “me to shoot you.”
The older man walked down to Duffy, who had been standing at the lakeside, and got into the 21-year-old’s face.
“Are you going to beat up a cripple?” one of Duffy’s friends asked the heated man.
“I don’t care, I’ll take a cripple.” Dana said, according to the video.
Dana slapped Duffy across the face before the two grappled each other and fell into the lake, as one of Duffy’s friends drove off with the jet ski.
Dana was filmed allegedly holding Duffy under the water as three other men showed up and separated the pair.
“I was so scared for my life because I can’t fight back, I broke practically everything and this guy’s on top of me under the water, I can’t see what’s going on, I can’t fight back,” Duffy told WCVB.
Both men refused medical attention after the scuffle.
Dana was arraigned in Framingham District Court on Thursday and initially held without bail, but a judge on Friday released him on a $7,500 cash bond, according to NBC 10 Boston.
“I’m fuming that he’s out now. This is insane. He just tried killing me two days ago, and then it’s like, apparently you can just pay bond, and it’s wiped clean,” Duffy told the outlet. “When he toppled on me in the water, there was nothing I could do.”
“He literally came up to me and my friends, and was instantly being aggressive and rude for no reason, in trying to kick us out of a public space,” Duffy said. “We weren’t having it, so we weren’t moving, and then he eventually came down after we were arguing with each other, and then more arguing led to him attacking me and then shoving me in the water, and I needed my friends to help me get up.”
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