DORCHESTER, MASS. (WHDH) – A Dorchester man is in custody after police say he attacked a woman at the Franklin Park Golf Course Sunday afternoon.
The owner of a restaurant on the course held 38-year-old Wayne Straw at gunpoint and told 7NEWS he was just protecting one of his workers. A picture was snapped by MIT freshman Loic Venon who was out golfing with friend Nikhil Kakarll.
“We hear a gunshot in the distance. Nikhil is like don’t worry its probably a shooting range they have nearby,” Venon said.
However, that was not the case. The shot they heard was fired by the restaurant owner as a sort of “warning shot” to grab Straw’s attention after he allegedly attacked a woman working a beverage cart near hole five.
“He reached over the stand, grabbed her by the neck, said give me your phone, tried to rob her, hit her with a bottle,” prosecutor Patrick Kelly said.
The prosecutor said other golfers pulled Straw off of the woman, using golf clubs to keep him down.
The victim was able to call her boss inside the clubhouse for help. He told 7NEWS that he grabbed the gun he carries daily and jumped into a golf cart heading for the scene where he fired the shot into the air.
“I am supposed to that’s my job,” the restaurant owner said. “That’s my business. She is my employee. It is very simple.”
“You just come around the corner the guy has a gun and I’m standing there and it’s like ‘What is going on,” said Kakarll.
Police were called to the scene and both Straw and the employee who fired the shot were taken into custody.
The man with the gun was released, the alleged attacker charged.
The students said the alleged attacker was not in his right mind.
“He was screaming obscenities at him,” Venon said. “The other guy was like, ‘Don’t move, stay where you are.”
Straw’s attorney, Alexander Jones, said he suffers from schizophrenia and is seeing a psychiatrist.
“They’ve been doing it by phone for the last year or so and while it’s effective it’s perhaps not as effective as the face-to-face meeting were,” Jones told the court.
Straw has a violent past and was ordered to be held on $1,000 bail. Should he post that bail he will be required to wear a GPS monitoring device and to stay away from the golf course, victim and witnesses.
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