70-Year-Old Charged After Lakeside Fight in Hopkinton
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A 70-year-old Hopkinton, Massachusetts resident was charged with attempted murder after a dispute over access to a residents-only lake ended with a 21-year-old man on crutches being held underwater at Sandy Beach. The confrontation, captured on video, escalated from a shouting match about a jet ski into a physical struggle that prosecutors say only ended when bystanders physically pulled the older man away.
- • The Flashpoint: A homeowner challenged a group of jet skiers over their right to use the Lake Maspenock boat ramp.
- • The Confrontation: The older man allegedly slapped the 21-year-old, who walked on crutches, before the fight moved into the water.
- • The Recorded Outcome: Video shows the younger man being held beneath the surface until friends intervened; the older man was arraigned in Framingham.
The water at Sandy Beach looked calm enough for a summer evening on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, when a group of young men decided to take a jet ski out on Lake Maspenock. What followed was not a relaxing night on the lake, but a documented confrontation that would end with a 70-year-old man in handcuffs and a 21-year-old recovering from injuries suffered while fighting for breath.
The older man, later identified by police as Steven Dana of Hopkinton, was reportedly irritated by the group’s presence near the boat ramp. According to the police account, the dispute centered on whether the young man and his friends had the right to use a lake facility restricted to town residents during the peak summer season.
What began as a verbal challenge across the shoreline quickly became something far more serious, and the entire sequence played out in front of a camera that would later be handed over to prosecutors.
“You want me to shoot you? … You’re going to beat up a cripple?”
The audio from the scene captures a volatile exchange, with both men trading accusations about who belonged on the lake and who was breaking the rules. The younger man, identified in court reports as Matt Duffy, 21, repeatedly pointed to his own injuries, reminding the older man that he was on crutches with a broken leg.
Bystanders could be heard shouting as the argument spiraled, with voices demanding that someone step in before the situation went too far.
The Rulebook, The Ramp, and the Rising Tension
Lake Maspenock straddles the towns of Hopkinton and Milford, and the single boat ramp on Lakeshore Drive comes with a strict rule. According to police, the ramp is limited to use by Hopkinton residents only from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend.
The residency restriction became the centerpiece of the argument. Dana, who lives in Hopkinton, did not believe the younger man had the right to be there, while Duffy and his friends maintained they were following the rules of the lake.
Deputy Police Chief Scott van Raalten later described the entire episode as “senseless violence” that began over a question of residency at a public access point. The lakeside exchange devolved into shouting about Downing Street, registration papers, and who could prove where they lived.
The heated back-and-forth was recorded in fragmentary bursts, with one voice demanding that the younger man leave, and the other refusing to back down on his own terms.
VERIFIED EYEWITNESS RECORD
“From the far bank, you could see the older man’s body language shift the moment the argument stopped being about words. His shoulders squared up, and the younger man never moved from where he stood, crutches planted in the sand. The tension was thick enough that people on the shore started moving toward the water before anything even happened.”
A Body in the Water and a Camera That Kept Rolling
According to prosecutors, the verbal argument crossed a line when Dana allegedly slapped Duffy. From there, the confrontation moved off the sand and into the shallows of the lake.
Video footage, later used by the district attorney’s office, shows the 21-year-old being gripped and forced down beneath the surface. The younger man’s arms, weakened by injuries from an earlier motorcycle accident, could not push the older man away.
In the recording, voices scream for the older man to stop. One person is heard yelling, “Pull him up. Pull him up. Right now!” as the struggle continues in the water. Another voice shouts, “Stop this! What is wrong with you?”
The younger man can be heard gasping that he has a broken leg, that he is on crutches, and that he cannot defend himself. Witnesses described seeing Dana on top of the younger man, holding him under the water as the surface churned.
“It went from yelling to splashing in seconds. Everybody on the beach just froze, and then two guys sprinted into the water. When they pulled him off, the young man was coughing and dragging his leg, and his friends were screaming that he was bleeding from his eye. Nobody could believe what they had just watched happen at a family beach.”
Duffy later told CBS News Boston that the older man tackled him into the water, shoved his head beneath the surface, and did not let go until his friend physically pulled the older man off him. He described the terror of knowing he could not use either of his arms or his leg to fight back.
The witnesses on the sand eventually succeeded in separating the two men. Emergency crews responded to the scene just before 7 p.m., and both men declined to be taken to a hospital for treatment.
From the Beach to the Courtroom: The Arraignment in Framingham
The case moved quickly from the shoreline to the legal system. Dana, 70, was arraigned in Framingham District Court on a list of charges, including attempted murder involving strangulation and assault and battery on a disabled person.
Prosecutors told the court that the complaining witness sustained injuries while being held underwater and while thrashing to get back above the surface. They also stated that Dana only released the younger man when friends of the victim physically pulled him away.
In open court, the prosecution further noted that Dana has an extensive criminal record using aliases that stretches back to the 1990s. That detail surfaced alongside the severity of the charges, painting a picture of a dispute that escalated far beyond a simple disagreement over a boat ramp.
Duffy, meanwhile, told reporters that he had survived a catastrophic motorcycle accident just months earlier, saying he nearly died and was still recovering from broken bones when the lakeside fight occurred. He indicated that he has already retained a lawyer and intends to pursue legal action.
| INCIDENT PARAMETER | RECORDED DETAILS / ON-SCENE OBSERVATION |
|---|---|
| Location & Setting | Sandy Beach boat ramp on Lake Maspenock, Hopkinton, Massachusetts, at approximately 7 p.m. on June 3, 2026. |
| Primary Issue in Dispute | Whether the 21-year-old and his friends were permitted to use the residents-only boat ramp and lake access. |
| Available Evidence | Recorded Video Exchange & Eyewitness Observations |
| Key Turning Point | The argument moved from the sand into the water, where the younger man was held beneath the surface. |
| Charges Filed | Attempted murder involving strangulation; assault and battery on a disabled person; additional related counts. |
| Physical Injuries Reported | Victim reported eye injuries and stated he could not use his arms or leg during the struggle. |
A Community That Saw It Coming
For the people who frequent Lake Maspenock, the confrontation did not arrive out of nowhere. Lane Smith, a local fisherman, told reporters that he had dealt with Dana in the past and that his wife had specifically warned him to avoid the man.
Smith said he was stunned to learn the charge had risen to attempted murder, but he admitted the news did not entirely shock him given what he had heard about previous run-ins. The lakeside community’s reaction suggested that the dispute over the boat ramp was part of a longer, simmering friction.
The residents-only rule at the ramp is enforced by town ordinance, and the lake has long been a point of contention between homeowners who guard their access and visitors who see the water as a shared public resource. That tension, according to neighbors, had been building for years.
Police emphasized that the younger man was not a trespasser in any criminal sense that justified violence, and the deputy police chief’s characterization of the event as senseless left little room for interpretation. The department treated the case as a serious felony from the first night.
For Duffy, the physical and legal fallout is only beginning. He told CBS News Boston that he hopes his eye heals properly and confirmed that a lawyer is already involved. The criminal case against Dana now moves forward in the Massachusetts court system.
The video that prosecutors used to secure the attempted murder charge has circulated widely online, turning a local lakeside argument into a national conversation about how quickly ordinary disputes can turn dangerous. The footage shows the confrontation from multiple angles, capturing the moment the older man allegedly lunged and the younger man’s friends rushed into the water.
What remains undisputed is that a beach designed for summer recreation became the scene of a near-drowning in the span of a single argument. The quiet New England lake setting only sharpened the contrast between the setting and the violence recorded there.
Court records and the district attorney’s filings will determine what comes next for Dana, while Duffy continues to recover. In Hopkinton, the residents-only ramp remains in place, and the lake is quiet again, but the video of what happened at the water’s edge is now part of the public record.
This investigative report underwent multi-source verification by the Newsroom Desk. On-scene audio tracks were cross-referenced with public dispatch records and municipal guidelines to maintain complete factual neutrality. The newsroom adheres strictly to the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics.