2 Brothers Charged With Stabbing Danvers Indoor Sports Complex Manager

DANVERS (CBS) – Two brothers are facing serious charges after investigators said they kicked and stabbed a manager at the Danvers Indoor Sports complex overnight.

Officers were called to the facility on Andover Street around 11 p.m. Wednesday after there was an altercation between a customer and the manager.

"The manager of the facility was on the phone with 911 frantically reporting that he was being attacked by two individuals and was screaming for help," said Assistant District Attorney Haleigh Reisman.

Prosecutors said a 17-year-old was upset he had to stop playing basketball because it was closing time. Then ,he and his older brother, 21-year-old Crismael Lithgow of Revere, kicked the manager multiple times and eventually stabbed him in the scuffle.

"The victim lifted up his shirt showed the officers three large lacerations to his back and left side area those wounds were appropriately 8-10 inches in length appeared to be deep cuts and were actively bleeding," Reisman sad.

Danvers Police later arrested the brothers, who are now charged with armed assault with intent to murder.

The manager, who has not been identified, was taken to a local hospital with what police described as "non-life threatening injuries." In a statement Thursday afternoon, Danvers Indoor Sports said he had been released from the hospital and is "expected to make a full recovery."

Lithgow pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Thursday in Salem District Court. He ordered held without bail until a dangerousness hearing October 7. His younger brother, whose name has not been released because of his age, was arraigned in Salem Juvenile Court.

The Lithgow brothers' parents and attorneys all declined to comment leaving court.

Officers from Peabody and Middleton and a State Police K-9 were called in to help with the investigation overnight.

They spent time searching in and around the building with flashlights, carefully combing through bushes and sorting through a trash can. Officers also searched a car that was parked outside the building and it was later towed away.

Danvers Indoor Sports said it is "working with the Danvers Police Department" on the investigation.

"Danvers Indoor Sports ownership would like thank the Danvers Police Department for responding quickly and handling the situation," the company said in its statement.