One jailed, one hospitalized after Gary fight

By LPR Staff
Editor/POST-REGISTER

A fight over electronic equipment left one Gary Job Corps student hospitalized and another behind bars on Friday.
According to a report from Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office information officer Sgt. Paul Cowan, deputies responded to a complaint of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon at the Gary Job Corps facility o

n Friday afternoon.
Cowan said the fight started in a restroom area when two students argued about a missing iPod. The victim, 19-year-old Juan Noboa, was stabbed with an unknown weapon in the lower abdomen as he fought with Lawrence C. Williams, also 19.
Noboa was transported via helicopter to Brackenridge Hospital for medical treatment, Cowan said. He was reported to be in stable condition on Sunday.
Gary Job Corps’ community services officer, Randolph Goodman, called the incident “mutual combat,” and confirmed that the argument started over stolen electronics. Goodman said the missing item was a PS2 gaming system, however.
According to Goodman, Gary Job Corps has a zero-tolerance policy for both drugs and violence, and that students are removed from the facility after any infraction, pending an investigation. If found guilty of violent conduct, students are terminated from the program.
Goodman confirmed that Williams had been removed from the center. He did not comment on Noboa’s future, given the incident was likely mutual.
Cowan said Williams was taken into custody and transported to the Caldwell County Jail, where he was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, with a bond set at $25,000.