Fox Sports is reporting that Andre Muller, the father of Isayah Muller, a high school football star killed in the Bronx, N.Y., just hours after his graduation, was the "aggressor" in a fight with parking attendants that led to the 19-year-old's death.
"What a tragedy. [The father Andre] Muller was the aggressor," police Commissioner Ray Kelly said during an interview with MyFoxNY.com's Good Day New York.
Muller, 40, of Manhattan, was arraigned Wednesday afternoon — appearing in a Bronx courtroom in a dress shirt smeared with his son's blood — on charges of felony assault, misdemeanor assault, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon and harassment.
A judge set bail at $10,000, and his family was trying to make bond.
Isayah Muller, who led Truman High School to the city championship last fall, had attended the ceremony with his dad, mom and girlfriend at Lehman College on Tuesday and then went to retrieve their car.
It is alleged that Andre Muller then accused the parking attendants of stealing from the family car, leading to the altercation. Sources said the father accused them of taking a $200 bottle of cologne.
"[Andre Muller] struck one of the attendants, whom I believe is still in the hospital. He assaulted the attendant. He picked up a shovel and struck the attendant," Kelly said. "Another attendant had a shank, which is a homemade knife. The young man also participated in the assault and was stabbed."
Isayah Muller was stabbed in the chest. Isayah and his dad drove to a medical clinic, where he was transferred to a local hospital, where Muller later died. Police are investigating whether the attendants acted in self-defense.
Stabbing a teenager in the chest with a handmade knife is kind of a tough sell for self-defense. The real tragedy of this is that Isayah's dad chose to fight over a bottle of cologne instead of going through proper channels to report the theft. Fighting and encouraging your children to fight over something so frivolous is unconscionable. We suspect that if Andre Muller had to do it all over again, he would choose a different path. It's quite simple: Your son or cologne?
Read more at Fox Sports.
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