Friends of a Dacula teen charged with stabbing five men at an intown New Year’s Eve party say he was provoked by his alleged victims.
“What’s been reported isn’t what happened,” said Esme Jarrell, 21, whose friend Luke O’Donovan is being held without bond at Fulton County Jail.
She said O’Donovan had been harassed by a group of young men at the party on Gibson Avenue in Reynoldstown.
“He was being called a (gay epithet) repeatedly,” Jarrell said, adding that O’Donovan — who sustained multiple stab wounds to his back — was defending himself.
But O’Donovan has thus far refused to tell police his side of the story, giving them only his name and date of birth.
His defenders, at least some of whom identify as anarchists, also have not spoken with law enforcement.
Family members, on a Facebook page supporting O'Donovan, have urged witnesses to speak with his public defender instead of police.
APD spokesman Carlos Campos said officers are investigating the claims made by the suspect’s supporters.
“We are not sure if the information is credible, but are investigating the incident and will pursue this and any other leads,” he said. “It should be noted, however, that officers arrested a man identified as stabbing five people. It will be up to the judicial system to determine if there were any mitigating factors prior to the stabbings.”
According to the incident report, a passerby found the switchblade — coated with blood and chunks of flesh — alleged to have been used in the stabbing about a half a mile from the 200 block of Gibson Avenue, where the party was held.
Police were first called to the 900 block of Northern Avenue, where one of the victims was found bleeding heavily, with a stab wound in his rear left thigh. Officers then located two other stabbing victims at Freedom Parkway and North Avenue. By then, the other three persons involved in the fracas, including O’Donovan, had been transported to Atlanta Medical Center.
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