Three Schuylkill County men are charged with assault after Schuylkill Haven police say they threw rocks and punches at each other in the middle of W. Main St.
Jacob Orrell, 20, Shawn Prentice, 20, and Sincere Williams, 18, all of Schuylkill Haven, each face one count of simple assault in a fight entered by mutual consent, along with harassment and disorderly conduct. Police filed the charges Oct. 26.
After reviewing surveillance video from the train station, police say all three had several chances to walk away, retreat, or call police, and instead fought in the roadway, disrupting traffic.
Officers were sent to E. Main St. near Railroad St. around 8:30 p.m. Oct. 14 for a report of a fight involving four people. No one was there when they arrived. An officer then saw Prentice and Williams walking out from behind Brok Sel, behind the Uptown Bar. Prentice had blood around his mouth, blood smeared on his right biceps, and swelling above his left cheek near his eye, police say.
Williams and Prentice told police they were walking on Dock St. toward E. Main St. with two juvenile girls when Orrell rode past on a bicycle and made a comment about one of the girls’ buttocks. Williams said he yelled at Orrell that the girls were underage and told him to shut up. The pair said Orrell rode back toward them, called Williams a racial slur, and then both sides went separate ways.
Williams and Prentice said they later walked toward the spot where the railroad tracks cross W. Main St. and saw Orrell standing on the tracks holding a rock, about 20 feet away, near a railroad control box next to the M&T Bank parking lot. They said Orrell threw about eight rocks at them. Williams said one hit him, so he approached Orrell and confronted him face to face.
Prentice told police he grabbed Williams from behind to pull him away and was punched in the face by Orrell. He said he didn’t know whether the punch was meant for him or for Williams. Williams said he and Orrell ended up on the ground with Orrell pulling his hair, and Prentice said he separated the two with the help of a witness.
Williams told police that before the fight, Orrell was “repeatedly calling him a n*****” and said, “I heard about your charges, you’re a p****, I hate n****** like you.” Williams said that when Prentice tried to intervene, Orrell said, “you’re a white boy, I don’t have an issue with you. I hate n****** like this one right here.”
The witness told police he was sitting near the train station’s main lobby when he “heard rocks being thrown and n***** this, n***** that,” and walked over to find Orrell and Williams fighting while Prentice tried to separate them.
As Williams and Prentice were getting into a car to leave, Williams told police, Orrell said he was “going to get his boys to show up with knives and they are going to f*** them up and kill them, and then he would press charges on Williams by telling the cops that Williams had a knife on him.”
Around the same time, officers were sent to Orrell’s Saint John St. apartment at his request. Police say Orrell had blood and scratches down his right forearm, a small spot of blood along his hairline, swelling above his left eyebrow, an abrasion on his right knee, and redness and scratches on his left shin.
Orrell gave police a different account. He said he looked at one of the girls as he rode past and that either Williams or Prentice yelled at him to stop, so he turned around and rode past them again. He said Williams repeatedly told him to “roll up” before both sides parted ways. Orrell also told police he knows Williams and Prentice are underage and wouldn’t engage with them as they described. Police noted both are 18 or older.
Orrell said he went home, dropped off his bike, and went back out, saying he shouldn’t have to stay inside because of Williams and Prentice. He said he heard the two and the girls talking loudly on River St. and believed they were trying to intimidate him. He said he went to the train station, sat under the awning, and saw Williams and Prentice on the tracks.
Orrell told police Williams talked about stabbing him and was brandishing a knife, and he acted out Williams pulling it partway out of his pocket and putting it back. Orrell said that if someone had a knife he would arm himself, so he held a rock. Asked whether he threw any rocks, he said he did. He also admitted calling Williams the slur, police say.
Orrell said Williams walked toward him off the railroad bed and onto W. Main St., and that when Williams and Prentice were within a foot or two of him, he threw a punch in self-defense. Asked why he didn’t retreat if someone had a knife, he said that once they were that close, he acted in self-defense and threw the first punch.
All three agreed Orrell threw rocks at Williams and Prentice, police say. Orrell had no response when asked why he would stay in Williams’ path if Williams was coming at him flashing a knife, and Williams and Prentice admitted approaching Orrell after Williams said a rock hit him.
Cameras near Dock St. showed Williams, Prentice, and the girls walking toward E. Main St. a short time before the fight while Orrell rode his bike nearby, repeatedly looking back at them, police say.
Railroad police cameras at the train station recorded the entire fight. According to police, the video shows Orrell crossing W. Main St. at the railroad crossing and motioning as if yelling at Williams and Prentice, who were about 25 yards down the tracks, then walking toward them. Orrell then walked backward about 25 yards to W. Main St. as Williams and Prentice walked toward him.
Police say the video then shows Prentice throwing liquid from a bottle onto Orrell, and Orrell swinging at Prentice and missing. The two sides briefly separated, with Orrell following Williams and Prentice from the roadway to the sidewalk.
When Orrell picked up a rock and threw it, Williams and Prentice turned around, and Orrell and Prentice threw rocks at each other, with Orrell throwing four and Prentice throwing three, according to police. After Orrell’s third rock was thrown toward Williams, Williams ran at Orrell.
Williams squared up with his fists raised and walked Orrell backward across both lanes of W. Main St. while Orrell pushed him away, police say. When Prentice tried to push Williams aside, Orrell punched Prentice in the face, knocking him onto the road, then punched Williams. Prentice walked at Orrell and was punched again, and Williams charged. Williams and Prentice both threw several punches as the fight moved into a gravel area next to the railroad pavilion and onto the ground.
Williams ended up on top of Orrell, who was holding him by the hair, while Prentice held one of Williams’ arms and tried to pull him off. Prentice then stepped on Orrell and used his leg to partially separate them, and Williams threw two punches from a kneeling position before standing up. Police say Williams then tried to stomp on Orrell’s head, partially connecting. Orrell kicked Prentice away, and Prentice appeared to pull Orrell to his feet.
Police concluded that Orrell approached first before backing away, that rocks were thrown in both directions, that Williams acted as an aggressor by walking at Orrell and motioning that he wanted to fight, and that Orrell threw the first punch against the two men, leading to a two-on-one fight.
Prentice also showed police a video from Aug. 22 of Orrell and Williams behind The Arena on E. Wilson St., with Orrell yelling at Williams about squaring up with him and saying he wasn’t afraid of him. While Williams was describing the slurs to police, Prentice walked around the parking lot laughing and saying “I’m 17-0,” which police believed referred to fights.
Williams and Prentice are both out on bail.
Preliminary hearings for all three are scheduled Nov. 24 before Magisterial District Judge Casimir Kosciolek in Orwigsburg.
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