IUP student charged in stabbing near campus
September 16, 2014 2:25 PM
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/east/2014/09/16/Indiana-University-of-Pennsylvania-student-charged-stabbing-near-campus/stories/201409160176
By Molly Born / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A former Indiana University of Pennsylvania student was charged with aggravated assault and tampering with evidence for his alleged role in a stabbing Sunday near campus.
William Rivera, 21, of Reston, Va., was arraigned today on charges that he stabbed Giovanni Brown in the arm in the 1300 block of Oakland Avenue shortly before 6 p.m.
His attorney, Robert Scott Muir, said Mr. Rivera was released today on $50,000 unsecured bond.
"The charges that were filed; we intend to vigorously defend against," Mr. Muir said.
Mr. Brown told officers he was leaning into the driver's door of a vehicle that stopped in the entrance of Monroe Muffler when he was stabbed, according to a criminal complaint filed by Indiana Borough police.
Police interviewed a man to whom the vehicle is registered later that evening. He said his friend "Tony" Rivera, who was in the back passenger seat, pulled the knife and stabbed Mr. Brown, the complaint continues.
A second man in that vehicle told police the same story. Both said that three men then drove away and washed the blood from the driver's side door before Mr. Rivera threw the knife outside an apartment on Carter Avenue.
Police wrote that Mr. Rivera told them a folding knife with a red handle "was thrown from the suspect vehicle on a gravel alley" near Carter. Officers recovered it that day.
An IUP spokeswoman said Mr. Rivera was a student at the time of the stabbing, but has since withdrawn from the university. Mr. Rivera had been on campus about three weeks and was likely a transfer student to IUP, Mr. Muir said.