Police: Man Threatened Teens With Knives, Carved 'Kill' Into Boy's Car For Allegedly Taunting Him Over Parking Chairs
MOUNT PLEASANT (KDKA) -- Police say a man threatened a teenager with knives because he made fun of him for trying to save parking space in Mount Pleasant.
According to court records, it all started with Dan Abbruzzese placed plastic chairs in front of his home to save parking spaces.
"The chairs were there to keep people from parking there because it was an annoyance," Abbruzzese said.
Abbruzzese, however, says he woke up recently to find his chairs gone.
"Thrown across here, and my blue recycling bin was tossed on the ground," Abbruzzese said.
Abbruzzese says he put the chairs back on the parking spots, and that's when a neighborhood teen took a seat and allegedly taunted him.
According to Abbruzzese, the teen said, "You don't have a car. There's no reason for you to be stopping anybody from parking here."
Abbruzzese, who says he's an Iraq combat vet with a traumatic brain injury and PTSD, got angry.
"There's things I can't control," he said.
Bruce Sutherland, who lives nearby, says his son saw the entire thing.
"[Sutherland's son] just said that one of his friends sat in the chair and a guy came flying down the sidewalk with a knife after them," Sutherland said. "It's not like they were throwing the chair or taking it or stealing it or anything. He just sat down in it."
According to court records, an enraged Abbruzzese took one of the three knives he was allegedly carrying and damaged the young man's car.
"He took a knife and carved into the kid's car, wrote the word 'kill,'" Sutherland said.
Abbruzzese, who says his speech is slowed by his injuries, told KDKA's Ross Guidotti he's sorry for what happened.
"I wasn't trying to hurt them. I was just trying to get them to leave my stuff alone," Abbruzzese said.
No one was injured in the incident.
Abbruzzese is facing multiple charges, including aggravated assault and terroristic threats. He is free on bond with a preliminary hearing set for May 16.
