Details of Railway Accidents in the Ottawa Area

1967, July 29 - Stabbing at Ottawa West station.

Ottawa Citizen 5 August 1967 Youth held after train stabbing Ottawa police charged a Lachine teenager Thursday night with the July 29 stabbing of Emilio Penetta, 18, of 50 Preston St., at the Ottawa West railway station. John Schofield, 18, of 938 Twenty-fourth Ave., Lachine, was arrested in a restaurant by Montreal police Wednesday. Schofield was brought to Ottawa by Detective Sergeant Norm McGee and Detective John Aldrich. The wounded youth and a friend, Larry Gagner, 17, of 1460 Chatelaine St., were returning from New Brunswick by train when they argued with two other youths who were using offensive language before a woman and child. When Panetta and Gagner left the train at the Ottawa West station, the other two youths followed them. Gagner told police one of them pulled a knife and stabbed Panetta. He was in good condition this mormng at the Civic Hospital with stab wounds to his left forearm, right leg, chest and abdomen. Ottawa Citizen 16 November 1967 Court heard of fight and stabbing To resume a fight that had started two hours earlier on a train, Emilio Pe-netta went behind the old Ottawa West CPR station with a Montreal youth shortly after noon July 29. But the Montreal youth suprised him by pulling a knife, Penetta testified Wednesday. Penetta countered by picking up a rock and throwing it, he recalled. But he missed and in the ensuing fight was stabbed four times. Testifying at the trial of John Schofield, 18, for stabbing with intent to wound. Penetta said the fight had started when the train was a short distance out of Montreal. He had objected to a friend of Schofield's using obscene language with ladies present in the railway coach. Schofield had taken up the argument, said Penetta, a student at Ottawa Technical High School who lives at 50 Preston St. Needling kept up As the journey continued Schofield "kept on trying to annoy me turning around and saying things," Penetta told assistant Crown attorney D'Arcy Finn. This resulted in a shoving match at one point when Schofield stood to put something on an overhead rack. " I stood up and asked him if he wanted to fight right now," said Penetta. "Then I pushed him." The scuffle was stopped, but the angry words continued. When Penetta and a friend, Larry Gagne, got off the train at the Ottawa West Station they were followed by Schofield and his friend. "Schofield said he still wanted to fight. I was getting fed up, so I said okay," Penetta testified. Penetta said he followed Schofield towards the back of the station when Schofield stopped and turned around. "I saw a knife in his hand my reaction was to pick up a rock," Penetta said. He threw the rock and lunged foreward trying to grab Schofield's knife arm, Penetta said. But Schofield lifted his arm and stabbed Penetta in the chest.. Penetta picked up a small rock and threw it. Then he looked down at his chest to check the wound, he said. As he did so, he saw Schofield coming at him with the knife. He put up his right arm to stop it. He was hit with the knife which went through the fleshy part of his arm, said Penetta. Schofield came at him as;ain and Penetta lifted his knee, which got cut. Then Schofield stabbed him again in the chest. Penetta turned away from Schofield and walked towards the station. "I wasn't worried about anything more that could happen to me," he explained. The two chest wounds caused Penetta's left lung to collapse, testified Dr. F. N. Brown, a specialist in general surgery at the Civic Hospital who examined him. Both these wounds were one-half inch wide and two inches deep. In addition the flesh at the knee was cut to the bone. Penetta spent nine days in hospital and is fully recovered. Defence attorney Arthur Cogan was expected to begin his cross-examination of Penetta today as the trial before County Judge A. E. Honeywell and a General Sessions of the Peace jury continued.

Return to Main Page of Railway Accidents

Updated 2 April 2020