Left: Jason Harrell (Marion County Jail). Right: Image of the confrontation between Harrell and the alleged victim (Britney Schwitzke/Facebook).
An Indiana man faces a felony charge after police said he punched and threatened a 14-year-old boy on a dirt bike.
Jason Harrell, 45, was arrested on Jan. 25 after he was caught on camera screaming at the teenage boy about riding his bike “on [his] g–damn street,” allegedly threatening to “f— [him] up.” After lacing into the boy in an expletive-filled rant, Harrell can be seen exiting his white van from the driver’s side, walking around to the sidewalk where the boy stood with his bike, and apparently physically accosting him.
According to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police, the alleged assault started before the video started recording. Court documents obtained by WXIN, a local Fox affiliate, stated that the boy was riding his motorized bike on the street when a white van came up beside him. The boy pulled over to the side of the road. As the driver, later identified as Harrell, approached the boy in his van, he reached his arm out of the window to push the teen off his bike.
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The documents stated that Harrell then reportedly turned his van around and drove back to where the boy was and started yelling at him. In the video of the incident posted on Facebook by the boy’s mother, Harrell then parks his van, walks around to the boy and screams, “Get the f— off my street!” before appearing to push the boy down and punch him while he was on the ground.
While the boy is apologizing to him, Harrell yells, “I see you on this f—ing street again, I’m gonna f—ing kill you and your dad, you understand?”
When Harrell spoke with police, he denied hitting the boy, whose mother posted photos of her son after the alleged incident with blood in his mouth and tears in his eyes. Documents stated that Harrell attempted to explain to police that he was upset about “the habitual behavior,” and that the biking was “an ongoing issue which plagued the entire neighborhood.”
Harrell was charged with two misdemeanor counts of battery causing bodily injury and one felony count of intimidation. Court records show that he posted $500 bond and was ordered not to have contact with the alleged victim and to wear a GPS tracking device. He is due in court on Jan. 28.
