18-year-old accused of stabbing 2 men during fight near Rotary Park
A Butler teen accused of stabbing two people near Rotary Park last week was in more than one fight in the 48 hours before he was arrested, according to city police.
Dartavion A. Johnson, 18, was charged Friday, Sept. 22, with two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of simple assault and two counts of recklessly endangering another person in connection to the stabbings.
According to charging documents, police responded to reports of “possibly several stabbings” around 4:40 p.m. that day in the area of 400 Shore St. Police said they arrived at the scene near West Cunningham Street, and that Johnson was found standing in a front yard with a metal pole and a knife in his hands. He was ordered to drop the items and was taken into custody, documents show.
A 25-year-old man and a 32-year-old man were found stabbed, police said. The men were taken by ambulance from the scene to a medical helicopter, which flew them to a Pittsburgh hospital, according to city police. Their injuries were not life threatening, documents show.
Police said they viewed surveillance footage from a camera at the intersection of Race and South Chestnut streets. The tapes show Johnson sitting near the intersection and leaning on a metal pole. Across the street, police said a man conversed with Johnson, then crossed the street with a group of people toward Johnson.
Police said one person attempted to take the pole from Johnson, then struck him in the side of the head. Before the second blow could come, police said Johnson stabbed the man in the left side. The man who was stabbed ran from the scene and fell in Rotary Park, documents show.
Other footage given to police shows a second man in the group trying to take the pole from Johnson and hit him with it. The man was unsuccessful, and Johnson regained control of the pole before he stabbed the man twice in the back, police said.
Johnson was interviewed at the Butler city police station after the fight, and he told police that he had been involved in a fight Thursday night with an unknown man in Rotary Park. He then fought the stranger again Friday afternoon outside Save-A-Lot in Pullman Square.
Johnson told police he later spotted a group of the stranger’s friends in Rotary Park and did not engage with them at first. Then, one of the group approached him and said he was going to fight him. Police said Johnson recounted two people trying take his metal pole before stabbing them.
Johnson is still in Butler County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail. His preliminary hearing before District Judge William Fullerton is scheduled Oct. 2.
