Butler man charged with wielding knife during Rotary Park melee
A Butler man is facing charges alleging he brandished a knife in a dispute with another man over a woman that drew a large crowd and many police officers to Rotary Park in Butler on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
Kayden A. Vaughn, 19, was charged with misdemeanors terroristic threats, recklessly endangering another person, simple assault and disorderly conduct. He was arraigned Wednesday and released after posting $30,000 bond.
Butler police responded to the park after someone called 911 and reported seeing a man with a knife and a man with a gun. A group of about 25 people who were there scattered and ran when police arrived.
While officers were placing a man in a patrol vehicle, another man ran up to an officer and handed him a folding knife and said he just disarmed a man identified as Vaughn who was swinging the knife around and trying to stab people, according to an affidavit.
The man who disarmed Vaughn told police that he is a legal gun owner and used his gun to force Vaughn to drop his knife, according to the affidavit. Police said that man had the gun in a holster on his hip. Police took him into custody and seized his gun.
Vaughn was detained, but the crowd at the park was growing, so additional police were summoned. As more police arrived, another man was detained. Then another man who was yelling and getting the crowd “amped up” was detained.
A witness told police Vaughn got out of his vehicle and swung a folding knife at people on the sidewalk before the man with the gun used the weapon to get Vaughn to drop the knife. The witness also said disarming Vaughn triggered a second fight in which people dispersed when police arrived, police said.
It was determined that the fight was over a woman that Vaughn and the first man who police detained were involved with, according to the affidavit.
After the crowd dispersed, police said they took the five people they had in custody to the station for formal interviews, and their statements matched video footage of the incident, police said.
In the end, police said they determined Vaughn got into a verbal dispute with multiple people on the sidewalk, got out of his vehicle while it was on the street and began swinging the knife at two of the detained men, including the one who was involved with the same woman as Vaughn was.
As the crowd grew in size, the man who disarmed Vaughn tried to break up the fight. Police said that’s when he noticed Vaughn had a knife and approached Vaughn with the gun pointed at him before Vaughn dropped the knife, according to the affidavit.
After Vaughn dropped the knife, two of the men who were later detained, attacked Vaughn and began punching him while he was down. Police said one man held Vaughn down by the neck and the other man threw several punches toward Vaughn’s kidney area.
