Brothers charged with ethnic intimidation, assault: Oxford police

OXFORD, Ohio (WXIX) - Two Butler County men are accused of using racial slurs during a fight where a knife was brandished at an Oxford apartment building, police say.

Oxford Police were dispatched to the building in the 4100 block of Indian Trace Drive around 3 a.m. on Feb. 25 following several 911 calls.

Officer Matt Hardin says the two alleged victims told him they were trying to get to one of their apartment units when they were met in the parking lot by brothers Michael Fox and Jeff Fox.

The victims told Hardin that the brothers began calling them racial slurs, Hardin wrote in a police affidavit.

They said they tried to get past the brothers, who were “guarding the apartment building entrance,” when one of the brothers took out a folding knife and brandished it like he was going to stab one of the victims, Hardin wrote.

The Fox brothers allegedly followed the victims as they retreated to the parking lot, according to Hardin, but then the brothers allegedly backed off and left in an unknown direction.

Hardin says a woman with family in the apartment told him the brothers had left in an orange Suzuki SUV. The woman told Hardin she did not have a key to the apartment because Michael Fox had it.

Hardin tried to contact anyone inside the apartment, but he says no one answered. Another officer then knocked on a ground-floor window, and a man named Samuel Contreras acknowledged him, Hardin says.

Hardin knocked at the same window, and Contreras came to it, telling the officer that Michael Fox said Contreras shouldn’t let Hardin in, according to Hardin’s affidavit.

Hardin says Contreras was locked in the bedroom with his 3-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son.

SWAT responded around 4:30 p.m. to remove Contreras and his kids from the apartment through the window, Hardin says.

The SWAT team made several announcements at the front door and soon arrested the Fox brothers without incident, according to the officer.

They face charges of assault, aggravated menacing and ethnic intimidation.

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