CAR-CRASH CLASH
Off-duty Bravest cuffed for beat of dad & son after accident
An ex-Staten Island correction officer ended up in the hospital with a broken nose and bleeding on his brain early Sunday after he tried to help two men who crashed their car near his home.
Dale Williams, 57, was set upon so badly by the men — one of them an off-duty firefighter — that his son feared for his life.
“I was trying to protect my father,” said Dale Williams Jr.
The melee began after 32year-old Firefighter Daniel Woodford’s younger brother, Sean, crashed a Ford Mustang into a pole across the street from the Williams’ home on W. Raleigh Ave. near Ford Place in West Brighton around 1 a.m., sources said.
Williams Jr., 28, came out of the house to find the Woodford brothers and Sean’s girlfriend stumbling out of the car with beer cans all around them. The trio had just come from a house party nearby, he said.
“I guess the kid (Sean) noticed me. We know each other’s families. We tried to move the car out of the way,” Williams Jr. said.
Dale Williams, 57, offered to park the damaged car in his driveway, cops said.
Williams had just moved the car into his family’s driveway when Daniel Woodford “all of a sudden, just took off running, full speed, after my father,” Williams Jr. said.
“My father gets out of the car, and he’s (Daniel) in my father’s face,” Williams Jr. said. “I was trying to get him away from my father.”
Things got out of control when the Woodford brothers’ friends showed up.
“Once all his friends came over, they just started grabbing and they just went crazy,” Williams Jr. recounted.
“We tried to get into the house and they followed me and (my father) up these stairs and brought us back down,” Williams Jr. said. “It was a mob.”
“Once all his friends showed up, he (Daniel) wanted to be a tough guy and took a cheap shot at my father. And then we started to defend ourselves.”
The firefighter hit the elder Williams so hard, the man was knocked to the ground, said a criminal complaint.
Once he got back up, the elder Williams grabbed a stick from inside his house and started smashing Woodford’s hand with it.
Woodford also punched Williams Jr. multiple times, giving him a black eye and several bruises.
Eventually, the police showed up and cuffed both Daniel Woodford and Dale Williams.
Woodford was charged with two counts of assault and harassment and released without bail after his arraignment in Staten Island Criminal Court Sunday.
He is a quarterback for the FDNY’s football team, according to the Staten Island Advance.
Williams was charged with assault and resisting arrest, cops said.
But the retired correction officer was so badly beaten he had to be taken to the hospital.
A criminal complaint against Williams was dropped, said his son.
“He was only defending his family and property,” the son said. “He had scans done. He has a broken nose in two places. He had bleeding on the brain.”
The firefighter’s brother Sean ran away in the middle of the chaos, cops say. Investigators are looking for him.
Woodford’s mother denied that her son fled. “It’s been a long day and I’m not going to speak for my son,” she said. “I’m obviously not happy.”
Williams Jr. was incensed at the melee.
“It’s my family. This is my property and you’re going to come here and disrespect us like this?” he said.
Williams Jr. says his father is healing well. “He’s a strong and healthy man, and we can’t wait to have him home,” he said.
The FDNY is reviewing the case with its legal team and Daniel Woodford faces suspension, spokesman Jim Long said.