Crime & Safety

Police: Update on Arcola Road Domestic Dispute

Lower Providence Police release reports providing further details about the domestic dispute in Audubon.

[Editor's Note: Some article details may be too graphic for some readers.]

As previously reported on Patch, Lower Providence Police responded to a domestic dispute on Sept. 27 in Audubon, after an alleged fight between a father and son that sent the father to Paoli Hospital and the son charged with various offenses.

Police responded to the incident approximately 5:25 p.m. at a residence on the 3300 Arcola Road. According to a report by Lower Providence Police, neighbors called 9-1-1 after hearing for the urgent request from the homeowner, who has been identified as the father in this incident.

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Neighbors said that the son, 28-year-old James Torrence of the Germantown section of Philadelphia, had run off prior to police arrival.

Police found Torrence and a woman, identified as his wife, waiting for authorities on a nearby resident’s front porch.

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Torrence’s wife told police that she and her husband had taken the bus to her father-in-law’s home to attempt to reconcile Torrence and his father’s relationship after a recent disagreement.

At approximately 3 p.m., Torrence’s father arrived home and they went inside to have dinner. Torrence’s wife told police she noticed the father-in-law taking Oxycodone and began to drink beer.

Torrence’s wife told police that her husband and father-in-law went to the garage while she went to the bathroom, from where she heard a sudden commotion. She found the two men engaged in a physical altercation, and left the house in fear of her father-in-law retrieving his guns.

When interviewed by police at the scene, Torrence described similar events, adding that the commotion started when he and his father went back inside from the garage, passed each other in the hallway, and then alleged that his father charged and started to choke him.

Torrence then said that he swung a wrench he had in his hand, striking his father in the head. Despite a serious laceration to his father's head, Torrence said that he and his father continued fighting from the hallway to the master bedroom.

Torrence then told police that he broke free and fled the house with his wife to the nearby woods, where he dropped the wrench. Police reported they were unable to recover the wrench.

Police, upon entering the home saw graphic signs of violence throughout the hallway and into the master bedroom.

The homeowner confirmed to police that his son and daughter-in-law were waiting for him upon his arrival home, and that later he and his son engaged in the physical altercation.

He said that when he and his son returned from the garage, his son was looking for a baseball bat in the kitchen, and became nervous that his son may kill him. He told his son to place the bat in the garage, which he did. The homeowner then told police that his son ran after him in the hallway, and attacked him on the head with what he thought was a crow bar.

He said that he started to scream for his neighbors to help. Upon arrival, police described the homeowner as being covered with signs of physical violence. Police also retrieved a loaded automatic pistol and shotgun from the master bedroom.

Torrence has been charged with Aggravated Assault, Simple Physical Assault, Harassment and other related charges. He was arraigned via satellite before District Judge Cathleen Kelly Rebar with a set secured bond bail of $50,000.


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