Family Cookout Turns into Back-Stabbing Brawl Between Brothers: Police

OUTSIDE CHICAGO, IL -- A 28-year-old Joliet man is accused of stabbing his brother in the back after an argument erupted during a cookout at Pure Rod and Gun Club, 23239 W. Main St., Plainfield, on April 4.

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Daniel J. Dupree, of the 1300 block of Morgan Street, was arrested following the melee at the Plainfled hunting and fishing club and charged with aggravated domestic battery, a felony.

He’s accused of stabbing his older brother during a fight over food, according to Will County Sheriff’s police.

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The victim — Dupree’s 31-year-old brother — said the brothers were about to cook ribs and lobster on the grill at about 9:30 p.m. April 4 when the argument broke out, according to police.

Sheriff’s department spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer said Daniel Dupree stabbed his brother in the back before the father of the two men intervened.

“While the two brothers were wrestling and fighting, the father got an axe and used the handle and was clubbing his son Daniel in an attempt to get him off the victim,” she said.

Daniel Dupree was taken to Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital, where he received seven stitches for a wound to his head, police said. He was then released to the custody of sheriff’s deputies.

The older brother was taken to Presence St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet to be treated for a stab wound. Hoffmeyer said his injury was non-life-threatening, but she did not know whether he had been released from the hospital. Police are not releasing the older brother’s name, and said there is currently no warrant for his arrest.

Police said a purple knife with black polka dots on it and an axe, both with blood on them, were found near a pavilion at the rod and gun club.

Hoffmeyer said the father, 52-year-old Dan Dupree of the 14000 block of Golden Lane in Plainfield, was also arrested after allegedly disregarding the orders of police. Despite the fact that the three men had been drinking, Hoffmeyer said, the elder Dupree attempted to take possession of Daniel Dupree’s truck.

“He was told numerous times that he couldn’t do that,” Hoffmeyer said. “Then he was attempting to enter the ambulance looking for keys to his son’s truck. He wanted to leave in the truck [and] he put up a struggle when deputies were going to arrest him.”

Dan Dupree was booked into the county jail on a charge of resisting a peace officer. According to jail records, he was released April 5, although bond information was not available.

The younger Dupree’s bond was set at $60,000. As of Wednesday, he was still listed as being in custody at the Will County jail. 

Second stabbing arrest for Dupree

The April 4 incident isn't the first time Daniel J. Dupree has been charged in a Plainfield stabbing.

In February 2012, Dupree was arrested following an incident at Uptown Eatery & Tap in which two other people were stabbed. At the time, Dupree was accused of pulling a knife on a man who was smoking a cigarette in an alley behind the Lockport Street bar and grill. A fight broke out that police said resulted in Dupree stabbing one man in the hand and the other in the face.

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Aggravated battery charges against Dupree were dropped the following summer after one of the victims was a no-show in court, police said. Sgt. Kevin McQuaid said all three men knew each other, and one victim, who was stabbed in the face, did not want to cooperate with police.

Dupree spoke to Patch after the charges were dropped, saying he was not the aggressor in the fight.

Read: Charges Dropped in Bar Stabbing

“I got jumped,” he said. “I was protecting myself.” According to Dupree, the physical fight started after a verbal altercation between himself and another bar patron.

“The guy was running his mouth,” Dupree said. “We were all drunk — that’s what it boiled down to.

“ ... Since the incident, I’ve changed quite a few things [in my life],” Dupree told Patch. But employers get an unfavorable impression of him when the arrest shows up in Google searches, making it tough for him to find a job.

“It makes me look like a lunatic,” he said.