Police: Revere Man Arrested For Attacking Beachgoers With Hammer While Shouting Racial Slurs
REVERE (CBS) -- A Revere man was arrested at Revere Beach Sunday after Massachusetts State Police say he attacked a group of Hispanic and African-American teens and young men with a hammer while yelling racial slurs.
Gianpaolo Cerretani, 24, was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault with a dangerous weapon, civil rights violation, threats to commit a crime, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.
Police were called to Revere Beach around 4:20 p.m. Sunday after a witness reported a man was swinging a hammer at beachgoers.
Witnesses told police that Cerretani took a football from a child, and became enraged after the group of teens and young men took the football from him and gave it back to the child. They said that was when Cerretani began shouting racial slurs at the group while swinging a hammer.
One man, an 18-year-old from Lowell, suffered minor injuries after he was struck by the hammer. He refused medical transport.
The group of teens and young men, from Boston and Everett and aged 16-20, subdued Cerretani as troopers arrived to arrest him.
State Police said that, after Cerretani was cuffed, he continued to shout racial slurs and obscenities--and that he called one trooper a "pig" and said "I'll take you too."
Cerretani, who was bleeding from several cuts to his head, was taken to Whidden Memorial Hospital in Everett for treatment. While there, police say he used a racial slur in addressing an African-American security guard.
Police said Cerretani wouldn't tell them where he got the hammer, which they said was recovered at the scene.
A bail clerk set Cerretani's bail at $1,040. He is expected to be arraigned Monday in Chelsea District Court.