LOWELL — A homeless couple faces assault charges after they allegedly followed three Chelmsford teenagers as they left the Owl Diner and tried to force their way into the teens’ vehicle, accusing them of stealing — charges the frightened girls – they denied.

The encounter which took place in the early hours of Saturday night culminated in a fender bender when the 17-year-old driver, in a panicked attempt to escape the couple, drove into traffic on Appleton Street.

Although no one was physically injured, the 17-year-old’s father said hours after the incident that his daughter and the other two girls, both 15, were shaken by the ordeal.

“She was hysterical when we first got there and she’s still shaken up,” Chris Drinan said of his daughter.

Drinan said the three girls, members of the Chelmsford High School swim team, gathered with teammates and coaches at the Owl Diner as part of a long-standing team tradition before heading to the championship meet. Division 1 swimming state in Boston on Sunday. Drinan added, “a tradition that ended today.”

Drinan provided a Lowell police report to The Sun on Tuesday detailing accounts of the incident. According to the report, police said officers were called to Appleton Street around 11:05 a.m. Saturday, where they found the three teenagers inside the vehicle “visibly shaken and crying.”

The girls told police they were walking into the parking lot after leaving the restaurant when a man began following them, yelling, “You have our money!” The girls said they ran to their vehicle, got inside and locked the doors, but the man and a woman began banging on the windows and pulling on the door handles. The teenagers said they feared the windows would break as the couple continued to beat on them while shouting about stolen money.

At one point, the girls claimed the man climbed onto the hood while the woman stood in the way of the vehicle. The 17-year-old driver eventually made it out of the car park on Appleton Street.

Video provided by Drinan to The Sun, shot by a resident in a room on the opposite floor, captured the chaotic moment as the girl slowly walked into stopped traffic. Footage shows the man and woman following the vehicle on the road, with the man making contact as the teenage driver tried to maneuver around a stopped vehicle, leading to a collision and causing damage.

The video shows the girl then pull into the Lowell Auto Service & Sales parking lot, visibly distraught in the driver’s seat. The couple continue to approach the vehicle, the man crossing and uncrossing his arms and zigzagging towards them, before stopping and leaning against a parked car. He remains there, looking at the girls in their now stopped vehicle as a third person appears to be photographing them.

The video is mentioned in the police report.

Drinan said he was told at the scene that the gunman fled to the nearby South Common, which is known for being a gathering place for the homeless population, before police arrived.

Officers spoke with the woman involved in the incident, 45-year-old Lisa Sullivan Coppola, identified in the report as homeless and living in a tent behind the Bartlett Community Partnership School on Wannalancit Street.

Coppola told officers, according to the report, that he lost $140 near the Owl Diner and thought the three teenagers, who were “laughing and giggling,” found and kept the money. She told police they “were homeless and didn’t have a lot of money to begin with, so they were trying to get the money back.”

Police determined Coppola and the assailant, identified in the report as David Calo, 47, also homeless, although his whereabouts were not specified, as the aggressors in the incident. The report states that police sought an arrest warrant for Coppola and Calo, both on three counts of assault. The two had not been arrested as of Tuesday evening, according to Lowell Police.

Previous Lowell Police arrest logs show Calo has been arrested multiple times since June on charges that include possession of a Class B drug with intent to distribute, possession of a Class A drug and warrants for theft and theft.

Drinan described Saturday’s incident as “disturbing”, noting that he had been told the area near South Common had become a known “hotspot” for crime.

Lowell Police announced last month efforts to combat crime in the area around South Common, which they identified as a hub for drug activity, fights, overdoses and shootings. On Oct. 18, police revealed they made 214 arrests while responding to 604 incidents since June 5 in the JAM neighborhood around South Common — encompassing Jackson, Appleton, Middlesex and other nearby streets.

Drinan said concerned parents of the swim team contacted the coach about their concerns about the girls dating in the area.

“She didn’t know that the area had kind of deteriorated to the point where it’s probably not safe for teenage girls to go there,” Drinan said.

Drinan noted that Owl Diner The property contacted a member of the team’s family to apologize. They even proposed hosting a special team breakfast for the entire swim team, but Drinan expressed that they wouldn’t feel comfortable doing so “any time soon.” He added that despite the incident, they support the Owl Diner.

“I hope the city of Lowell gets the help it deserves to fight this epidemic,” Drinan said. “There is too much good in the city to be overshadowed by incidents like this.”

Lowell City Councilman Erik Gitschier took to social media on Tuesday to express his disgust at the incident, using it as an opportunity to promote the council’s scheduled vote on an ordinance aimed at banning public camping in order to break up camps without shelter, like those at South Common. Gitschier said on Facebook: “Enough is enough.”

“Whose daughter should go through this?” Gitschier told The Sun on Tuesday. “It’s awful.”

See lowellsun.com and Thursday’s print edition for additional information on the ordinance public hearing.

Follow Aaron Curtis on X, formerly known as Twitter, @aselahcurtis

Originally published: November 12, 2024 at 6:39 PM EST