A man running down the street screaming he was the “son of God” attacked two young children and two men with a 2-by-4 Tuesday morning, Manchester police said.
Manchester police received a call just after 7 a.m. for a report of an assault around 55 Holl St.
The man, later identified as Ruben Vasquez Jr., 24, of Manchester, was carrying a piece of wood that witnesses described as a 2-by-4 and assaulted and bruised a 1-year-old girl, a 3-year-old boy and two men who were on the street, police said.
Tabatha Post, the mother of the two children, said Vasquez approached her husband and asked, "Do you know who I am?"
“And my husband was like, ‘Yeah, I know you.’ No, he said, ‘I'm the Son of God’ and he said it again, ‘I'm the Son of God and I have to do this,’" Post recalls.
Then he started hitting the children with a stick, she said. Her husband was able to shield the baby and tell the boy to run so the kids weren't hit with full force.
After allegedly leaving them bruised and battered, Vasquez went up Holl Street, where Rodney Mansfield was working on his car, trying to get it started.
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"I heard the lady across the street say, 'Rodney watch out!,'" he said, "And as soon as I turn my head is when he ran up to me and whacked me with a stick," Mansfield said.
Mansfield blocked the blow with his arm and Vasquez walked up the street to the corner.
Cops chased Vasquez to East Center and Holl streets, where Vasquez proceeded to hit an officer with the same piece of wood, police said.
The children, men and police officer were bruised during the attack, treated at Manchester Memorial Hospital and released, police said.
People at Vasquez's home Wednesday afternoon said they were not there Tuesday morning.
"He's a good guy," Neil Williams said. "He's snapped before and he's snapped again."
Vasquez was charged with risk of injury to a minor, second-degree assault, assault on a police officer, criminal trespass, third-degree criminal mischief, interfering with police, disorderly conduct and first-degree criminal attempt/assault.
He was held on $100,000 bond and presented in court Wednesday.
