A man from Massachusetts, Steven Dana, 70, is accused of trying to drown a skier, 21, in a heated fight in the lake.
A 70-year-old Massachusetts man is accused of trying to drown a 21-year-old man who was injured when his jet ski crashed into the entrance to a public pool in a horrific incident caught on camera.
Steven Dana is accused of attempted murder, strangulation, assault and battery on a disabled person for allegedly attacking Matthew Duffy at Lake Maspenock’s Sandy Beach in Hopkinton, Mass., on Wednesday.
Duffy and his friends were using the boat ramp on their jet skis when Dana, a resident of the lake, was disturbed by the sound of a motorboat trying to chase the crowd out of the water, according to a police report seen by WCVB.
Duffy has been using crutches to get around after being seriously injured in an accident a few months ago.
The group of friends were filming the interaction with Dana on a GoPro when the older man became very angry during an argument with Duffy, according to the video obtained by the store.
“Let me have fun with my jetski,” Duffy told Dana, who told the young man to take the boat to another lake.
Duffy refused and said he lived nearby and was allowed to use the pool. Some of the younger pool users started to stop Dana, 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 on the shore of the lake, and got in the 21-year-old’s face.
“Are you going to be crippled?” one of Duffy’s friends asked the burning man.
“I don’t care, I’ll take the cripple.” Dana said, according to the video.
Dana slaps Duffy in the face before the two grapple and fall into the lake, while one of Duffy’s friends comes out on a jet ski.
Dana was filmed allegedly holding Duffy underwater as three other men appeared to separate the two.
“I was in fear for my life because I couldn’t fight back, I broke everything and this guy was on top of me under the water, I couldn’t see what was going on, I couldn’t fight back,” Duffy told WCVB.
Both men refused medical attention after the altercation.
Dana was arraigned in Framingham District Court on Thursday and held without bail, but a judge on Friday released him on a $7,500 cash bond, according to NBC 10 Boston.
“I’m upset that he’s out now. This is crazy. He just tried to kill me two days ago, and then it’s like, you can just pay the bond, and it’s gone,” Duffy told the outlet. “When he dropped me in the water, there was nothing I could do.”
“He came up to me and my friends, and he was just aggressive and for no reason, trying to get us out of a public place,” Duffy said. “We didn’t have it, we weren’t moving, he finally got off and we had been arguing with each other, which led to him attacking me and putting me in the water. I needed my friends to help me get up.
