The Schuylkill County man charged with stabbing a juvenile at a high school football game last week is now facing an attempted homicide charge.
State Police have amended the charges against Jose Nunez-Ovando, 42, of Frackville to include attempted homicide. Nunez-Ovando is still being denied bail at Schuylkill County Prison since his arrest on Oct. 8, following the Schuylkill Haven at Shenandoah Valley football game.
In its amended charge, police say Nunez-Ovando stabbed a juvenile during a fight near the concession stand at Veterans Memorial Stadium on the campus of Shenandoah Valley School District.
Police say Nunez-Ovando stabbed the victim in the abdomen and in the groin with a silver folding knife. The victim sustained a stab wound to the groin that narrowly missed an artery as well as a stab wound to the abdomen that resulted in a collapsed lung and punctured liver.
The victim was first rushed to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pottsville before getting airlifted to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown for further treatment.
A concession stand worker told police he ran out to break up a fight among a group of kids and saw Nunez-Ovando, the father of one of the kids involved, holding a knife in his right hand. The worker said he believed he saw Nunez-Ovando stab the victim and then put the knife back in his pocket.
A school resource officer told police he heard someone yelling, “He has a knife; he has a knife,” and called out asking who had one. The officer said Nunez-Ovando told him he did and handed it over.
Investigators say surveillance video shows 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 and pull the victim off the pile. Police say he was seen several times taking the item out of his pocket and putting it back. A Snapchat video that was passed around shows Nunez-Ovando unfold a folding knife and thrust it forward at the victim with his right hand, according to police.
A juvenile friend who left the stadium with the victim told police another juvenile punched the victim in the face and Nunez-Ovando then stabbed him. The friend said an unknown friend drove them to the hospital.
Nunez-Ovando gave troopers a different account. He told police his son said one of the people who jumped him over the summer was at the game. Nunez-Ovando said he told the football 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 said he followed his son into the game to make sure he was OK, and a fight broke out while they were in line at the concession stand. When he tried to break it up, he said, his son yelled, “Dad behind you.”
Nunez-Ovando told police a male with dreadlocks punched 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. When a school officer yelled that someone had a knife, he said, he handed it over.
He told police he did not see anyone get hurt but 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 is also 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.
NOTE: Schuylkill County District Attorney Mike O’Pake was not immediately available for comment on the amended charge.
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