In a shocking incident captured on video, a 70-year-old Massachusetts resident stands accused of attempting to drown a young man during a heated dispute over a jet ski at a local lake. The altercation, which unfolded at a community boat ramp on Lake Maspenock in Hopkinton, Mass., has led to serious charges against the elderly man.
Authorities have charged Steven Dana with attempted murder, strangulation, and assault and battery on a disabled person. The victim, 21-year-old Matthew Duffy, was allegedly attacked while using the lake facilities with his friends. Duffy, who has been reliant on crutches due to injuries from a previous accident, found himself at the center of Dana’s ire.
The conflict reportedly began when Dana, who lives on the lake, took issue with the noise generated by the jet ski. His objections quickly escalated, and he attempted to force Duffy and his companions out of the water, as per the police report accessed by local news channel WCVB.
The entire confrontation was inadvertently documented by Duffy’s group. Armed with a GoPro, they captured Dana’s mounting frustration and the subsequent altercation. This footage has become a crucial piece of evidence in the ongoing investigation.
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.”