Suspects in hammer attack say that trucker struck first

Two men facing charges for a hammer attack against a truck driver say that the trucker initiated the Interstate 495 altercation. 

The incident occurred on March 25th on I-495 near Bolton, Massachusetts just before 2 p.m. 

According to ABC 5, Javier Gutierrez Vargas and Juan E. Marin, the two suspects in the incident, saw the truck driver weaving in and out of traffic before he waved at them to pull over. The brother-in-laws did pull over, and that’s when the altercation started. 

Marin say the truck driver pushed Vargas first, which led to the hammer attack. However, Marin claims that he never managed to strike the driver with the hammer, but the trucker was able to turn it around on him. 

“He [the trucker]  hit him first and it was, like, to defend myself and my brother-in-law,” Marin said. “When I was in the middle, he got the hammer and hit me in the head.”

Marin says he needed staples in his head as a result of the hammer attack, which is why police found him and his brother-in-law at the hospital after the incident was reported. Marin admits that he did punch the trucker several times. 

Another trucker saw the incident from his own truck and pulled over to see if he could help. 

“I look and I see three individuals with a golf bag, golf clubs, just kind of with a guy on the ground just getting hammered,” trucker Kevin Roach said. “They [the suspects] had jumped back into their car and driven away, and that’s when I recorded the video,” Roach said.

The unidentified truck driver is still in the hospital with serious injuries from the hammer attack. No further details about his condition have been released. 

Vargas has been charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and a single count of disorderly conduct. Marin has been charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and a single count of disorderly conduct.