WESTFIELD – A young South Hadley man was physically restrained and held for police by his girlfriend’s parents after he allegedly punched the pregnant young woman, the mother of his one-year-old son.
City police responded to a 12:07 p.m. call for assistance at a St. Dennis Street residence and Officers Harry Sienkiewicz and Joseph Stoyak arrived to find an older couple trying to hold down a younger man, later identified as Scott Thomas Edelman Jr., 24, of 11 Jacobs Way, South Hadley.
When the officers ordered the man to stop struggling he immediately placed his hands under his body and then struggled with the officers to avoid being placed in handcuffs.
Once the cuffs were in place, the man continued to resist and called out to his girlfriend telling her not to pursue criminal charges and promising to leave her family alone.
The woman who had been restraining the suspect told the officers that her husband has cardiac issues and an ambulance was summoned.
The responding firefighters offered assistance to both the pregnant young woman and her father but both declined transport for further medical attention.
Sienkiewicz reports that the woman explained that she and the suspect had been engaged in an argument via text messages before the man arrived at her home to continue the argument face-to-face.
She said that she went outside to speak with him but the discussion did not go well and her father went on to the porch to see what was happening.
Eventually, she said, Edelman was told to leave and she thought he was going to comply when he turned back toward his SUV. As she reached her father on the porch, she turned back and saw that Edelman was charging toward her. And, she saw, he was holding a knife which he threw at her.
The knife missed her, she said. Stoyak found a knife in tall grass near the porch.
The woman said that the man continued to the porch and, when Edelman reached her, he punched her chest so hard, she said, that it took her breath away. She said that Edelman is aware that she is 11 weeks pregnant with his second child.
The woman’s mother said that she called police and then helped her husband restrain Edelman until the officers arrived.
Edelman was arrested for assault and battery on a pregnant person, assault and battery on a person older than 60 years-of-age, assault and battery in a domestic relationship and assault with a dangerous weapon.
He is expected to be arraigned today in Westfield District Court.
