Tarentum police say man attacked woman, 2 children after coming home from bar

Tarentum police say a borough man attacked a woman and hit two young boys after coming home from a bar late Monday night.

Borough police charged Stacy Andrew Smith, 29, with simple assault, endangering the welfare of children, resisting arrest and harassment.

In a criminal complaint against Smith, police say officers from Tarentum and Brackenridge went to an apartment in the 400 block of West Seventh Avenue around 11:30 p.m. A call taker said they could hear a man and a woman arguing and children crying in the background. Officers said they could hear the children crying from outside the front door when they arrived.

Police said Smith was visibly highly intoxicated and started arguing with officers, and became “more irate” after being told to sit at a kitchen table and take a breath.

Police said the woman had visible injuries and told officers Smith caused them. When officers tried to handcuff Smith, they allege he argued with them and tried to pull away. He was handcuffed after officers warned he could be tased if he did not comply.

In his jail photo, Smith had a bleeding wound to his left eye. Allegheny County spokeswoman Amie Downs said Smith was “combative” at the county jail and “corrections officers had to appropriately respond to those behaviors pursuant to policies and protocols.

“In addition to Mr. Smith, several corrections officers have also reported injuries,” she said.

Police said the woman claimed Smith began having a seizure after coming home from a bar. When he came to, she said he became angry at her, grabbed her by the arm and threw her to the ground, and then grabbed her by the shirt and pulled it up around her neck.

Police said the woman had swelling to her right elbow and right hand and had redness on her neck. She was taken by ambulance to Allegheny Valley Hospital.

An officer asked the two boys, ages 10 and 6, what had happened. Police say the older boy told them Smith hit him in the head with a closed fist; the younger boy said Smith hit him in the shoulder and neck with a closed fist. Paramedics checked the children, who were taken to Allegheny Valley by their grandfather.

Smith was arraigned Tuesday and sent to Allegheny County Jail on $100,000 bail. He did not have an attorney listed in court records.

Smith is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 1 p.m. Dec. 16 before District Judge Carolyn Bengel.