A Schuylkill County man is being held without bail after police say he stabbed a juvenile in the abdomen during a fight near the concession stand at Thursday night’s Shenandoah Valley football game.
Jose Nunez-Ovando, 42, of Frackville, whose son was among those fighting, was taken into custody later that night.
The victim was taken to a Pottsville hospital and later flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, police say.
Schuylkill County 9-1-1 received a call about a fight inside the stadium shortly after 9 p.m. Shenandoah Police asked State Police to take over the investigation around 10 p.m.
A concession stand worker told police he saw a group of kids start fighting and ran out to try to break it up. He said he then saw Nunez-Ovando, the father of one of the kids involved, holding a knife in his right hand. The worker told police he believed he saw Nunez-Ovando stab the victim and then put the knife back in his pocket. He said the fight broke up, started again, and he began yelling that Nunez-Ovando had a knife.
A Shenandoah Valley school resource officer told police he ran over to help when he saw a group of people fighting, then heard someone yelling, “He has a knife; he has a knife.” The officer said he yelled out asking who had a knife, and Nunez-Ovando said he did and handed it over. The officer said he kept the knife and turned it over to State Police when troopers arrived.
Investigators say surveillance video shows a fight break out between the victim and another juvenile as several people tried to separate them. Police say the video shows a man identified by school staff as Nunez-Ovando jump in to try to break up the fight, pull what appeared to be a knife from the front pocket of his sweatshirt, then reach in and pull the victim off the pile. He was seen several times during the encounter taking the item out of his sweatshirt pocket and putting it back, according to police.
Police also say a Snapchat video from an unknown user that was passed around shows Nunez-Ovando pull out a folding knife, unfold it and thrust it forward at the victim with his right hand.
The victim left the stadium with a juvenile friend, police say. Shortly after midnight, troopers interviewed that friend at his home with his mother present. He told police he was at the game with the victim when another juvenile punched the victim in the face, and that Nunez-Ovando then stabbed the victim. He said an unknown friend drove them to the hospital and he held a tissue on the wound on the way.
Around 11:30 p.m., State Police say they learned Nunez-Ovando was at a Railroad Ave. address in Frackville. They took him into custody there and brought him to the Frackville barracks.
Nunez-Ovando gave troopers a different account when they interviewed him around 2:30 a.m., police say.
He told police he went to the game and sat outside the fence behind the scoreboard. He said his son told him that one of the people who jumped him over the summer was at the game. Nunez-Ovando said he went down to talk to the football coach, told the coach he was worried about another son, and asked whether the coach could walk him to his car after the game because he was afraid they were there to come after him.
He told police his son went into the game to get food, so he followed to make sure he was OK. He said a fight broke out while they were in line at the concession stand, his son was involved, and everyone fell to the ground. When he tried to break up the fight, he said, his son yelled, “Dad behind you.”
Nunez-Ovando told police that as he turned, he saw a male with dreadlocks punch him in the face. He said the male had a knife in his hand, and he grabbed it from him and put it in his pocket. He said that as the fight continued, a school officer yelled that someone had a knife, so he handed it over.
He told police he did not see anyone get hurt, but said he had blood on his hand when he got home, which he said was probably from the knife.
Troopers saw a small cut on Nunez-Ovando’s right fist, police say.
Nunez-Ovando was arraigned early Friday morning before Magisterial District Judge Anthony Kilker and charged with felony aggravated assault, misdemeanor counts of possessing a weapon on school property, simple assault, disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment, and a summary count of harassment.
Kilker denied bail, and Nunez-Ovando was sent to Schuylkill County Prison.
A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Thursday in Shenandoah.
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