Elderly landlord recalls fighting off tenant armed with frying pan

January 29, 2008 04:33 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By John R. Ellement, Globe staff

An elderly landlord today said he thought his life was going to end when an angry tenant smashed him in the head with a frying pan and then started to choke him with his bare hands.

"I’m going to die,’’ Arthur L. Wallace recalled saying to himself as the vicious attack unfolded in the kitchen of the Marlborough apartment building the 79-year-old Wallace owns on Broad street.

“He had the pan and he hit me on the head,'' he said as he recounted the Sunday night attack. "I went down to the floor and he jumped on me and he started to choke me to death.’’

The struggle awoke another tenant who ran into the room. The attacker, identified by Marlborough police as 46-year-old Edward J. Ablazey, Jr., jumped off Wallace and began wrestling with the other tenant, police said.

The tenant escaped and shouted for police, who arrived and found a panting Ablazey wearing blood stained clothing. He was arrested, police said.

Ablazey has pleaded not guilty to numerous charges in Marlborough District Court and is currently being held pending a dangerousness hearing set for Friday.

Wallace, who said he was covered with blood, was rushed to UMass Medical Center where he was treated for numerous lacerations to his head and shoulders. He was given stitches, ordered to stop driving while he heals and was at his home in Natick recovering today when interviewed.

Wallace said he is a retired school psychologist from the Newton schools who has run his apartment building as a “sober house’’ with the hopes of helping recovering alcoholics or substance abusers get back on their feet.

He considered Ablazey yet another person he could help, but said they ran afoul of each other and have been bickering for weeks.

Last Friday, Wallace said he testified against Ablazey in court and criminal charges were issued against Ablazey for breaking into a coin operated clothes washer in the building. This Friday, Wallace was to be in civil court seeking Ablazey's eviction for non payment of rent.

In the meantime, Ablazey has gone to city authorities complaining about substandard conditions in the building, according to Wallace.

Wallace said he is sore and his face is bruised. "I know how it feels like for a football player after a game,'' he said.