Bodycam videos released in attack at DeLand bus stop
By: DeLand, FL - DeLand police have released body-worn camera video that was recorded while officers responded to a violent incident at an intersection on Tuesday.
Christopher Steven Schwable, 36, of Pierson, is accused of aggravated child abuse and aggravated assault in the incident, police said.
Witnesses said that Schwable, whom police described as a transient, choked a juvenile and used a knife to threaten an adult near a bus stop in the area of Clear Lake Drive and North Spring Garden Avenue.
One witness told officers he saw Schwable choking a juvenile he knew. Fearing for the child’s safety, the witness said he made a U-turn and returned to the intersection, where he saw the juvenile running away from Schwable.
The witness told police that he had approached Schwable with a toolbox in hand, unsure whether he was armed, when Schwable allegedly told the witness that he "stopped that man in his path" and held up a knife with his right hand.
“(The witness) advised that he used his left hand to control Schwable’s right hand holding the knife and used his right hand to strike Schwable approximately two times with the toolbox in self-defense,” the affidavit states.
The newly-released bodycam video shows officers responding to the scene and seeing a man holding a bleeding Schwable to the ground.
“This guy was choking him out,” the man kneeling over Schwable said. “I got out, he had a big-a** knife. (...) It’s some-f***ing-where, I don’t know. I grab my toolbox to defend against him, and then I tackled his a** and got him down. He was f***ing beating the s*** out of this kid, man.”
Officers eventually recovered a folding knife from Schwable’s person, police said.