A firefighter made his $100,000 bail Wednesday, a day after he was arrested in connection with an assault on an elderly man at the spring football scrimmage Friday, according to TCU police.
Shea O’Neill, 42, was arrested Tuesday night on a charge of injury to the elderly after an elderly man was assaulted during a confrontation Friday evening at the spring football scrimmage.
James Lester Woods, 78, suffered severe dental damage, including seven cracked teeth, a bloody nose and concussion after being punched in the face, said TCU Police Sergeant Kelly Ham.
Ham said O’Neill made bail Wednesday morning and his case will be filed with the District Attorney in the next day or two.
O’Neill was at the scrimmage with his two young sons and another boy, said Ham.
“About two-thirds of the way through the scrimmage, they got up from their seats and O’Neill took the boys to the restroom. Instead of returning to their seats, they decided to stand up there by the handicapped section of the stadium,” Ham said.
Ham said that according to witnesses, the young boys kept climbing on the railings in front of the handicapped seats and were blocking the view to Woods and his wife, Patsy.
He said that Woods and his wife “kept asking the boys to move down, and get off the railing, and O’Neill took offense to it, according to the witnesses.”
“[O’Neill] engaged in a verbal argument with Woods. And witnesses thought it had just about calmed down when all of the sudden O’Neill struck Woods in his face hard enough to knock him out of the chair,” Ham said.
Woods was taken to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital where he was treated and later released that same night, Ham said.
O’Neill was arrested on a murder charge in 2013 in Arkansas. The case was later dropped after the conclusion was made that he had acted in self-defense, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Ham said he wasn’t sure how long it will take the case to go to court after being filed with the District Attorney. He said it could take six months to a year or more.
