Fights and stabbings followed two separate high school football games in as many days on Long Island, police said, though the violence didn't appear to stem from the games themselves.
A man and a teenager were arrested and three people were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after the postgame stabbings at Half Hollow Hills High School East in Dix Hills on Friday and Wyandanch Memorial High School on Saturday, Suffolk County police said.
The schools are less than seven miles apart.
On Friday, 17-year-old Kamal Williams and another man clashed in the parking lot around 7 p.m. after Half Hollow Hills High School East played Smithtown High School West, police said. They said the fight sprang from a previous dispute between the two men but didn't give details.
A criminal complaint said Williams stabbed the 19-year-old victim twice in the back, Newsday reported.
But Williams' lawyer, John Scarpa, told the newspaper Williams was defending himself after four people attacked him.
"My client is actually the victim here," Scarpa said. "The police department arrested the wrong individual."
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Williams, of Dix Hills, was released on $11,000 bail after being arraigned Saturday on assault and menacing charges, Newsday said. The 19-year-old's identity wasn't released.
Then another fracas erupted behind the bleachers after Wyandanch's homecoming game Saturday against Southampton, police said.
Two teenagers from North Amityville, 17-year-old Malik Harrison and 18-year-old Kymel Sims, were stabbed. The two were hospitalized in stable condition, police said Sunday.
A 21-year-old was arrested on assault charges. He was awaiting arraignment Sunday, and it wasn't clear who would represent him in court. No telephone number for his West Babylon home could immediately be found.
Police say the fight appeared to be unconnected to the game. But it cast a cloud over the homecoming celebration.
"We regret that anything like this happened," district spokesman Nathan Jackson told Newsday.
