A 42-year-old Massachusetts man is accused of trying to stab and beat with a bat teenage lifeguards after they asked his children to leave a community pool in Worcester Wednesday.
Carlos Betancourt is accused of attacking a 17-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl after the lifeguards asked a group of youth to leave the Lincoln Village pool house because they weren't listening, Worcester police said.
The attack left the community of Lincoln Village in shock.
"I was very upset when I heard it," said 11-year-old Frank Meszaros, "because I've known them for a very long time now and I've never seen something like this happen before, at least here."
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Police were called to the pool at 134 Country Club Boulevard in Worcester around 5:35 p.m. Wednesday, where they spoke with a number of witnesses, officials said.
Betancourt, the father of the youth who was asked to leave, walked into the pool house where the lifeguards were gathered and began arguing with them, police said. He allegedly then took out a knife and swung it at the 17-year-old male lifeguard.
The lifeguard jumped back and was not touched by the knife. Betancourt went back to a car in the parking lot, grabbed a baseball bat, and returned to the pool house, police said. He allegedly swung the bat at the 15-year-old female lifeguard, but missed.
Next, Betancourt is accused of using the bat to smash the glass front door of the pool house and then fleeing.
"He then sees a 15-year-old lifeguard taking a picture of his license plate and swings a bat at her, and then swings a bat and destroys some window at the pool house,” a prosecutor said in court.
After a brief search, police found Betancourt at his home on Liberty Street and arrested him. He was charged with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and vandalism.
Betancourt was arraigned in court Thursday, and was being held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for Aug. 3.
The lifeguards weren't hurt in the incident, but said Thursday that the attack was scary. Both lifeguards were back on duty at the pool.
The incident is the second attack on lifeguards in Worcester this summer. A 17-year-old lifeguard was beaten and stabbed at Bell Pond on the Fourth of July shortly after he asked a group of young men to stop smoking and drinking.
"Any action that threatens the wellbeing of those lifeguards is appalling and unacceptable,” a city spokesperson said Thursday.
