A Jersey City man was charged with aggravated assault after he tried to defend three women from harassment at Pier A Park in Hoboken, according to police reports.
The three women, from Jersey City, Richmond, N.Y., and Miami, Fla., were walking in the park at about 1 a.m. last Saturday when Mario Gerges, 20, of Jersey City came up to them and asked for their names, police said.
When the women ignored him, Gerges became angry and started to shout obscenities at them, police said.
He then tugged one of the women's dresses to stop her from walking away, police officials said.
At that point, Caleb Holmes, 23, and two friends, all of Jersey City, approached Gerges and told him to leave the women alone, according to reports.
Gerges refused, and he and his friend, Ehab Habib, 23, of Jersey City, challenged the three men to a fight, police said.
In the ensuing scuffle, Holmes struck Gerges with a glass bottle and bloodied his head, according to reports.
In response, Gerges' friend Habib attempted to strike Holmes with a black plastic bag that also contained a glass bottle but missed, according to police reports.
Gerges then contacted police at Newark and River streets and told them that he was hit in the head with a bottle and that his friend was also being attacked, police said.
When police arrived at the park, they charged Holmes and Habib with aggravated assault, according to reports.
Gerges was charged with harassment, and the two other men were charged with simple assault, police said.
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