76-year-old security guard attacked by group refusing to leave basketball court
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. Aug 28 2020
A 76-year-old security guard in Williamsport had to get medical attention after he was assaulted while locking up the playground where he works. Richard Parker was locking up basketball courts at Flanigan Playground when he says a group of people refusing to leave harassed and assaulted him. The attack was posted on social media.
Video shows Parker being harassed and assaulted at Flanigan Playground in Williamsport. Parker is the security guard for Firetree Place, the organization that oversees the park.
“Out of nowhere, a ball come and hit me in the side of the head. I went back to the fence and fell down. It hurt,” Parker recalled.
Parker is in charge of locking up the basketball courts at 8 p.m. during the summer months. He told Newswatch 16 that a group of people refused to leave the courts.
“I come over to the group over here, and they had bikes, they tried to run me over twice,” Parker said.
“I shouldn’t have to worry about him coming to his place of employment at 8 a.m. or 8 p.m. and worry about him getting assaulted,” said his son Tony Parker.
Tony Parker is one of Richard’s sons. He says he saw the video just a few hours after one of the teens posted on social media on Tuesday night.
“I just lost it, you know, I started making phone calls, and I called him yelling at him for not calling me.”
According to Richard Parker, this isn’t the first time he has been attacked while locking up.
“On the third of July, I was locking the main gate, and when I did that, somebody threw M-80s at me. It landed behind me, and the shrapnel came up and hit me in the legs.”
“I really don’t want him doing this at all, but he is stubborn,” Tony said. “He ain’t going to stop until he is done, you know dead. He is stubborn.”
Those basketball courts were locked up at noon on Wednesday. The organization that oversees the court will be meeting Thursday to decide when and if the basketball courts will be reopened again this summer.
Officials say Flanigan Playground and the basketball courts will remain closed until police finish the investigation into the assault.
