A St. Paul man was charged Wednesday with making terroristic threats in connection with the group assault of a 45-year-old man outside his University-Snelling neighborhood apartment building.
Darrell Crowley, 57, incited a group of 15 to 20 young people to assault the victim Monday, according to the criminal complaint.
The victim, identified in court documents as MAF, was sitting on a low wall in front of Crowley’s apartment building on Snelling Avenue, near Charles Avenue, when Crowley came out and asked him and another man “Are you scared?,” charges said.
The other man left, but MAF nodded his head. Crowley then struck him on the neck and knocked him off the wall. A crowd of young adults and juveniles gathered, and Crowley ordered them to begin kicking and punching the victim’s head, legs, arms and back, charges said.
A witness told police that after Crowley assaulted MAF, he went into the building and got a “large kitchen knife,” which he pointed at MAF as he threatened to kill him, charges said.
MAF told police he got the group to stop its assault after he pulled out a small pocketknife, the complaint said.
Crowley gave contradictory accounts of the incident, including whether or not he hit the victim or had a knife, according to the charges. He denied telling the crowd to assault the victim and that he threatened to kill him, the charges said.
Later, Crowley told police that both he and the victim were intoxicated and arguing when they began shoving and punching each other, but he couldn’t remember who started it. He also claimed MAF had assaulted an unknown male with a knife before the incident began, according to the complaint.
Crowley told police he “showed” MAF the knife after cooking in his apartment and said that “if he was going to kill someone with a knife he should use something (similar),” charges said.
When police responded to reports of a fight, MAF had blood on his clothing, a cut hand, a scraped and swollen face and other scrape marks. He went to the hospital after complaining his back was “very sore from being kicked,” the charges said.