By Bruno Matarazzo Jr.
SALEM — A bloodied man and his girlfriend told police a harrowing tale early Saturday that began when he tried to stop someone from leaving the scene of an assault.
Shorty after midnight, Patrolmen Robert Cunningham and Kevin St. Pierre responded to multiple reports of a fight on Salem Street. They found the injured couple inside their apartment with the windows smashed out and a hole in the door.
The victim's arm was covered with blood and his girlfriend's shirt had blood on it as well. They told police the cuts were from the shards of glass cutting them.
They said the injuries came after a mob of about 20 armed kids attempted to retaliate for an altercation moments earlier between the victim and the group's friend, Jose C. Diaz.
The victim told police he was outside his door on Salem Street smoking a cigarette.
To his left, at the intersection of Salem and Palmer streets, a group of kids was drinking.
At one point, a car came by and one of the kids in the group threw a bottle at it. The driver stopped and yelled to the kids that he was going to call the police. The man left in his car, heading down Salem Street, and a red Honda CRX — with members of the group inside — started in pursuit.
That's when the victim stepped in front of the red Honda.
"You're not leaving until the police arrive," the victim yelled at the driver, later identified as Diaz, 22, of 64 Harbor St.
Diaz went in reverse about 30 feet, stopped and went forward, driving over the victim's right foot, the victim told police. The he backed up and drove over the man's foot again, according to police.
After the second time, the victim jumped out of the street and the Honda took off.
The victim, now joined outside by his girlfriend, said he looked down the street "and they saw 'an ant farm' coming towards them" armed with baseball bats, pipes and sticks.
The victim grabbed his girlfriend, went in the house, and locked the door to their apartment.
Seconds later, the group smashed all of the windows. The victims could see bats coming inside the window and being thrown inside, he told police. A neighbor also had her windows smashed.
Glass was flying everywhere, he told police.
The victim ran outside and said one of the kids in the group tried to hit him with a bat. The victim grabbed the bat from the kid and chased the group away.
Diaz was later found on a neighboring street and identified by the victim as the one who drove over his foot. Police charged Diaz with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a motor vehicle).
He is being held on $5,000 bail and will be arraigned at Salem District Court today.
Police are continuing to investigate the broken windows caused by the angry mob. Patrolmen David Tucker and Phil Verrette, and Sgt. Fred Ryan, assisted.
