Teen charged in playground stabbing

Montco D.A.: 15-year-old attacked his brother, sister

>> A Lansdale teenager is facing attempted murder charges after he allegedly stabbed and seriously injured his two siblings during a knife attack on a Hatfield Township playground.

Nathan Serrano, 15, of the 1100 block of Elm Avenue, was arraigned on Tuesday before District

Court Judge Andrea Duffy on charges of attempted murder, aggravated and simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, possessing an instrument of crime and harassment in connection with the alleged Feb. 22 knife attack on a playground at the rear of Oak Park Elementary School in Hatfield Township.

Serrano was charged as an adult and was remanded to the county jail in lieu of $500,000 bail to await a March 9 preliminary hearing on the charges before Duffy.

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and Hatfield Township Police Chief William Tierney announced the arrest on Tuesday.

The investigation began about 5:20 p.m. on Monday when Hatfield Township police responded to the school property at 500 Squirrel Lane for a reported stabbing after a woman called 911 and reported, “My son stabbed my other son and my daughter. Please help me now,” according to a criminal complaint filed by Hatfield Township Detective Sgt. Richard Hoffner.

The woman further advised, “My son is schizophrenic. He stabbed my other two kids and I can’t find my daughter and my son is full of blood sitting in the snow. I am in the back of the school,” according to court papers.

Arriving officers located the woman behind the school with her 13-year-old son who was lying on his back with a black coat draped over him and he was “visibly injured and going in and out of consciousness,” Hoffner alleged. The woman’s 9-year-old daughter was sitting on the ground bleeding from a head wound.

As officers rendered aid to the 13-year-old boy they observed he had stab wounds to both of his hands, a large open laceration to his face near his mouth and a stab wound to his chest below

his throat, according to the criminal complaint.

Both victims were transported by ambulance to Lehigh Valley Hospital – Cedar Crest for further medical treatment.

Police obtained video surveillance footage which captured the alleged attack as all three siblings were at the playground behind the school building.

Serrano was observed chasing his younger brother from the playground toward the school building and the younger boy fell over a snow embankment and wound up lying on his back in the snow.

“Nathan Serrano stood over (the victim) and repeatedly stabbed him with the knife he was holding in his right hand,” Hoffner alleged, adding Serrano also slashed the younger boy in the face.

Serrano then allegedly grabbed his 9-year-old sister from behind and appeared

to try and cut her throat with the knife. As the girl ran away, Serrano chased her, pushed her down to the sidewalk and then “appeared to stab her repeatedly with the knife,” Hoffner alleged, referring to the depictions contained in the video surveillance.

After the girl got up and ran away, Serrano threw the knife away and investigators later recovered the knife in the snow in the vicinity of where the alleged attack occurred.

“After attacking his brother and sister, Nathan Serrano appears to be using his cellular telephone as he walks around his injured siblings prior to running off towards Oak Park Road. Nathan Serrano was later located at a nearby residence and taken into custody without incident,” Hoffner wrote in the arrest affidavit.

According to authorities, the 13-year-old male victim underwent surgery and was in critical but stable condition with 15 stab wounds and lacerations to his back, right shoulder, hands, sternum,

head and face. The 9-year-old female victim was treated for lacerations to the top of her scalp and she received sutures and was released from the hospital, according to court papers.

The North Penn School District said in a statement sent to parents Monday evening that the stabbing took place “after school hours” and was “not related to any school activity.”

“There were no students in the building at the time, including extended school care, who had all been picked up by then,” district officials said in a statement sent to parents under the name of Oak Park Principal Jonathan Winkle.

“Tragic events such as this are always upsetting. I want to assure you that the safety of the Oak Park community is our number one priority. Thank you to our local police and NPSD security who responded swiftly to this evening’s events,” the district’s statement read.