A 70-year-old man from Massachusetts stands accused of attempting to drown a 21-year-old during a heated altercation over a jet ski at a local lake’s boat ramp. The dramatic incident was captured on video.
Authorities have charged Steven Dana with attempted murder, strangulation, and assault and battery on a disabled individual. These charges arise from an alleged attack on Matthew Duffy that took place at Lake Maspenock’s Sandy Beach in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, this past Wednesday.
The disturbance began when Duffy and his friends were utilizing the boat ramp with their jet ski. Dana, who lives nearby, reportedly became irritated by the noise from the jet ski and tried to remove the group from the area, as detailed in a police report reviewed by WCVB.
Duffy, who has been reliant on crutches following a severe accident a few months earlier, was among those enjoying the day at the lake.
The friends had been documenting their encounter with Dana using a GoPro camera. The footage, obtained by the news outlet, shows Dana growing increasingly agitated during his interaction with Duffy.
“Let me enjoy my jet ski,” Duffy implored Dana, who responded by suggesting Duffy take his watercraft elsewhere.
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.”
