WESTFIELD – A city man facing charges including attempted murder will remain in custody following his arraignment yesterday in Westfield District Court.
Angel Ortiz, 19, of 11 Hanover St., was arraigned on charges of armed assault with intent to murder, two counts assault with a dangerous weapon, resisting arrest and possession of a Class D drug with intent to distribute.
Judge Philip A. Contant set bail, pending a July 12 hearing, at $5,000 but the real bar to his hopes of release is not the relatively high cash bail, which would be required for release, but previous charges.
Oritz had been charged with distribution of a Class D drug, possession of a Class D drug with intent to distribute and two charges of a drug violation near a school or playground in April, 2012, after the parent of a Westfield Vocational-Technical High School student reported to School Resource Officer Tracy Ploof that he had observed Ortiz make an illicit exchange of contraband in Grandmother’s Garden.
When Ortiz appeared in court yesterday, Contant found that the new charges were sufficiently credible to rule that he had violated the terms of his release on bail and ordered that he be held without right to bail in that case, making the bail set for the new charges moot until the previous charges are adjudicated.
The new charges stem from an incident Monday evening in which Ortiz is alleged to have stabbed a 30-year-old Orange Street resident in a confrontation reportedly sparked by a comment he made.
According to a companion of the victim, he and the victim were riding bicycles past Ortiz and another male party on the Elm Street sidewalk when his friend took exception to something Ortiz said.
The victim stopped to confront Ortiz, the witness reports, and Ortiz produced a knife and slashed at the witness.
The victim then threw a bicycle at Ortiz, apparently in an unsuccessful attempt to disarm him, and Ortiz stabbed him in his shoulder.
The victim was transported to Baystate Medical Center where he was reported by police to be in serious but stable condition yesterday morning.
The victim had been discharged by this morning, a hospital spokesperson reports.
A different witness told police that Ortiz then jumped over a fence and fled.
The several responding officers, including Det. Sgt. Stephen K. Dickinson, were largely in the dark about the details of the incident as they converged on the area near the intersection of Elm and Chapel streets and Officer Thomas Cusack reported a possible suspect near Main and Mechanic streets.
Sgt. Jeffrey Baillargeon was on Bartlett Street moving to assist Cusack when he saw a man, later identified as Ortiz, running toward Meadow Street and gave chase.
Baillargeon reports that he called out to the suspect ordering him to stop but, although Ortiz looked over his shoulder at the uniformed officer in pursuit, he did not stop, scaling back yard fences until he fell and capture was inevitable.
When he was taken into custody, Ortiz was found to be in possession of a small glassine bag containing vegetable material Baillargeon recognized to be marijuana. Oritz also had additional empty glassine bags and a small scale.
Baillargeon reports that, as Ortiz was going over one of the fences in his way, he saw something drop and, when the item was recovered, he found it to be a knife.
Dickinson said later that it was “just a small pocket knife.”
Dickinson said that the officers involved in the chase did not have a clear understanding of what had happened until firefighters who had arrived to assist the victim requested assistance with crowd control and he and Det. Brian Freeman hurried to the scene of the incident on Elm Street to help them.
Dickinson said that some answers about the incident may be revealed when he reviews security video from Westfield Bank.
He said that the bank has a very good video surveillance system which should provide coverage of the area in front of the bank where the altercation took place.
He said that the video was not immediately available due to administrative complications and, as of last night, he had not had an opportunity to view it.
