SAN ANTONIO — A father was accused of brutally attacking a 10-year-old boy who San Antonio police say is the classmate of the suspect's son.
According to an arrest warrant, 44-year-old Ruben Duron Jr. forced his 10-year-old and 9-year-old sons to fight two of their classmates Tuesday afternoon. The incident happened off the 200 block of East Dullnig Court, just a block away from Hot Wells Middle School.
According to San Antonio ISD police, a witness was waiting to pick up his daughter from the middle school and saw something he thought was suspicious.
The witness is also a victim in this case, and we are choosing not to name any of the victims involved.
Detectives report in the search warrant that the witness watched a pickup truck driving slowly and following three young children as they walked home from school. The witness told police he kept a close eye on that truck because he thought it might be a kidnapping.
Instead, he saw two young boys suddenly jump out of the truck.
Investigators later learned those two boys were the sons of Duron and that, moments before, Duron was heard yelling at his sons to fight the other boys, according to the arrest warrant.
One of the children, a 10-year-old, said he didn’t want to fight. But Duron allegedly coerced his sons into initiating the fight.
According to the arrest warrant, Duron jumped out of the truck a few moments later, grabbed his son’s 10-year-old classmate and "slammed his head into a wooden fence post of the residence."
The witness watched the violence unfold and quickly tried to stop the attack, police said.
Investigators said that’s when Duron pulled out a knife, stepped away from the child and told the witness to "shut up." He then allegedly followed the witness to his car, warning him "to not get in his business" before asking: "Do you want problems? Do you want me to kill you?"
Police said Duron then took off with his two sons.
Shortly after the attack, detectives met the mother of the 10-year-old victim as she was on her way to Hot Wells Middle School to file a report with the SAISD Police Department, records say.
When detectives spoke with the 10-year-old victim, he was “crying, visibly shaken, and had a wound about 2 inches in length,” according to the arrest warrant.
The boy later told detectives he thought the man was going to kill him. That's also when he identified the man as the father of one of his classmates.
According to police documents, the boy told officers he was walking home with his 9-year-old brother and 8-year-old sister when Duron pulled up and encouraged his sons to get out and fight their classmates, according to police.
The boy’s account also matches what the witness told police, who added Duran yelled racial slurs at the three siblings, according to the arrest warrant.
It's still unclear what provoked the attack.
Duron was arrested late Tuesday night. He faces two counts of aggravated assault.