Two Schuylkill County men are facing charges after a late-night fight outside a Rush Township home that state police say ended with one of them being struck in the head with a pistol.
State Police-Frackville charged Luis Torres, 21, of Pottsville, with recklessly endangering another person, simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct-engage in fighting.
Police charged the other man in the fight, Seth Mahmod, 23, of Barnesville, with simple assault, harassment, two counts of disorderly conduct for engaging in fighting and unreasonable noise, and public drunkenness.
Both men were charged in connection with the same July 1 incident on Crest St. in Rush Township.
Troopers were dispatched to a home on Crest St. around 11:30 p.m. for a report of an assault, police say. Mahmod told police Torres hit him in the head with a pistol, causing a laceration to his left brow.
Torres told police the trouble began around 9 p.m., when his girlfriend received a text message from her ex-boyfriend, Mahmod, and Torres started a conversation with him.
Torres told police he continued the text conversation because he and his girlfriend “were having fun with it” by antagonizing and “rage baiting” Mahmod. That changed, Torres told police, when Mahmod texted him the address of his girlfriend’s mother’s residence, which created a concern among them for her safety. Torres told police Mahmod did not make any direct threat against his girlfriend’s mother.
In a separate account given to police, Torres said Mahmod was aggressive during the text exchange, appeared drunk “due to multiple misspellings” and challenged him to fight.
Mahmod gave police his own version. He said that on July 1, “in a moment of weakness,” he texted his ex-girlfriend, but her current boyfriend, Torres, responded. Mahmod told police that made him angry, that he challenged Torres to fight and that the two agreed to meet at Grier City Park.
Mahmod told police Torres antagonized him and said Torres was “going to beat the hell out of him.” Mahmod said he waited at the park, Torres did not arrive, and he returned to his residence, where Torres then appeared.
Torres told police that out of concern for the safety of his girlfriend’s mother, the couple decided to go to her residence and check on her welfare. After the welfare check, Torres told police, he drove to Mahmod’s residence roughly two miles away, telling police in one account that he intended only to drive by.
Torres told police that when he arrived, he saw Mahmod outside the residence and Mahmod confronted him in the roadway at his driver’s-side window and continued to challenge him to fight.
Mahmod told police he initiated the confrontation at Torres’ vehicle because, “I’m not gonna let anyone talk to me like that.” Mahmod said he ordered Torres to exit the truck, and that as the confrontation continued, Torres hit him in the head twice with a pistol. Mahmod told police he thought he was hit with the bottom of the pistol’s grip and that it was a Glock. He said he backed away from the truck and told Torres, “I’ll get you.”
Torres told police a different version. He said that when he saw Mahmod approach his vehicle, he told Mahmod he had a gun, describing it in one account as a warning meant to deescalate the situation. Torres told police Mahmod tried to reach inside his truck and that he pushed Mahmod away into his mirror, which is how he thought Mahmod was injured.
Torres told police the physical confrontation was short, that there was only pushing and shoving, and that he did not hit Mahmod with the pistol, although he was in possession of one at the time. He told police he brought the pistol to Mahmod’s residence as a “precaution,” and that after pushing Mahmod away, he drove off.
Mahmod’s mother told police she witnessed the confrontation and that Torres hit Mahmod with the pistol, which she described as a “hard hit.” She told police she was beside Mahmod at Torres’ driver’s-side window, that she saw the pistol on Torres’ lap, and that Torres hit Mahmod in the head with it twice.
Mahmod was taken by the Ryan Township Emergency & Rescue Squad to St. Luke’s-Miner’s Campus emergency department, police say. Mahmod told police he received five stitches for the laceration to his left eyebrow and was treated for a closed head injury and blunt force injury. Police say Mahmod showed them his medical records, which confirmed the information. Police say Mahmod was also treated for alcohol intoxication.
Police identified the pistol as a tan Glock 43X with a magazine containing 15 rounds of defensive ammunition and one round chambered, and seized it as evidence, police say.
Mahmod provided police with four screenshots of his text conversation with Torres, two with the girlfriend’s cellphone number and two on Instagram, police say. Police say the screenshots showed Mahmod did challenge Torres to a fight at Grier City Park, and that Torres advised he was enroute to the location.
During a neighborhood canvass, police found video surveillance cameras at a residence east of Mahmod’s home and reviewed footage covering roughly three minutes just after 11 p.m., police say. The fight itself was not visible, but police say the trooper heard a thud and intensified yelling, along with audio of Mahmod yelling and calling Torres a “pussy” multiple times. The video then showed Torres driving a Dodge Ram 1500 away from the scene, revving his engine and honking his horn, police say.
Mahmod told police he had been in a relationship with the woman for five years, that it ended approximately two years ago and that he “never really got over it.” He told police his memory of the entire event was “fuzzy” because he was drunk and got a concussion. Of the fight with Torres, Mahmod told police, “I won’t lie, I did egg it on.”
Both men are scheduled for preliminary hearings on Aug. 25 before Magisterial District Judge Stephen J. Bayer.
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