A Mahanoy City man is facing assault and animal cruelty charges stemming from an incident in the borough early Friday morning.
According to Mahanoy City Police, around 2:00am Friday, police were called to 68 South Main Street for a report of a domestic between Daniel Smith, of Mahanoy City and a woman. This was the second time that police were called to the home that night after a verbal domestic earlier in the evening.
Borough Police along with State Police from Frackville, as well as East Union Township Police responded to learn that Smith had been destroying personal property in the home.
While speaking to Smith, he refused to cooperate and began to act in an aggressive manner. At one point, he grabbed the collar of one of his dogs and roughly threw her down the steps then threatened to kill two women in the home.
Smith then fled to the basement and returned upstairs holding a pitbull by the collar and threatened officers. He eventually put the dog away back downstairs but wouldn't comply with police. He barricaded himself in his basement until he needed help from being sprayed with pepper spray earlier in the incident.
Smith was then taken into custody on charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, resisting arrest, terroristic threats, cruelty to animals, and disorderly conduct. He was arraigned by on-call Magisterial District Judge Edward Tarantelli, who locked Smith up in Schuylkill County Prison on $50,000 straight cash bail.
As of 11:00am, Friday, the Hillside SPCA was also called and was enroute to the home to take into custody at least 8 pit bulls that were in the basement of the home.
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