GREENFIELD — Two people were stabbed during a fight at a Greenfield home after tempers flared over a Facebook post.
Police were called to a home in the 300 block of Tague Street around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday where a fight had broken out, and one man involved pulled a knife, injuring two people, police said.
Brandon Anderson, 33, of Fountaintown was arrested early Wednesday on charges of criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon and battery, police said. The investigation is ongoing, and police are working to determine if others involved in the fight will be charged, according to a news release.
The scuffle started with a Facebook post, Greenfield Police Chief John Jester said.
Jacob O’meara, 25, admits he made a name-calling comment about William Anderson, 38. Brandon Anderson, William Anderson’s brother, got angry.
Brandon Anderson came to O’meara’s Greenfield home Tuesday night. The two got into a fistfight, O’meara said, but Brandon Anderson eventually left the property.
He returned a few hours later, this time with three other men, including William Anderson, O’meara said. A second fight broke out, and this time, Brandon Anderson pulled a knife, according to police.
O’meara was slashed in the forehead, and William Anderson was stabbed in the hand during the altercation, police said.
The next morning, O’meara’s blood could still be seen on the front steps of his home. He had a black eye, and a bandage covered the eight stitches in his forehead where he said he was slashed.
Both men’s wounds were non-life-threatening, police said.
A friend of O’meara’s, who was there at the time, called 911 when the second fight broke out. Everyone involved was still there when police arrived. Brandon Anderson was taken into custody, and police worked into the early hours of Wednesday gathering evidence and information from witnesses.
O’meara lives at the home with his girlfriend and two children, who were not home at the time of the fight.
He said he’s known his alleged attackers for years and never had a problem with them before. To brawl over a Facebook post seemed like an overreaction, he said.
“I would have taken the … whooping like a man and probably never would have called the police,” O’meara said Wednesday. “But you don’t pull a knife. … He could have taken my life.”
Neighbors, including Abi Poe, were shaken to see police vehicles on their typically quiet street.
Poe passes O’meara’s home each morning as she walks her own two children to the bus stop. Wednesday, she used that time to talk with them about safety.
“I just explained to them that we need to be careful,” she said. “I’m worried this might happen again, and this time, someone will show up with a gun.”