The family of 27-year-old Kelly Scott of Peterborough is looking for answers after he was hospitalized with severe injuries.
Those wounds were the result of trying to break up a fight, stepfather David Crane said.
“At this point, his nose is broken in three places, orbital bones are shattered, his jaw is displaced,” Crane said.
The alleged incident happened in the P.A.C.E. parking lot on McDonnel Street on Friday night.
“There was a fight going on, and some guy was actually on the ground apparently getting kicked, and so Kelly went over and talked to them, and said, ‘Hey,” and tried to break it up, tried to de-escalate the situation,” he said.
Crane says someone hurled a metal object at Scott as he stepped in, striking him in the face, shattering his nose and teeth. Crane believes the object was a metal grinder used to cut up marijuana.
“And the frightening thing is, when we were in the hospital Friday night, or Saturday morning, no one seemed that surprised. The doctors didn’t seem that surprised, the nurses didn’t seem surprised.”
Crane says the family wants people to know what happened, and they want to bring those responsible to justice.
Peterborough police say they’re in the early stages of their investigation.
“We certainly are encouraging anybody who has information to come forward to us so we can gather as much information as possible,” Insp. Neil Collins said.
The incident has gotten a lot of social media attention, with many stating this type of stranger-to-stranger violence has become all too common in Peterborough.
But Collins says that’s not what police are seeing.
“There’s nothing, no growing trend by any means, though there are certain isolated incidents that do take place, similar to this,” Collins said. “We don’t have a tolerance for stranger-to-stranger violence.”
As for Crane, he says people should never be afraid to stand up for what’s right, despite what’s happened to Scott.
“I think people genuinely want to do good things. You can’t not step in. That’s a dangerous precedent.”