- A mob of nearly 20 kids beat a man brain dead Sunday
night after he confronted them for throwing an egg at him and punched one
teen in the mouth, police said.
-
- Eight suspects, at least one as young as 10, were in
custody Tuesday, police said. The victim, Charlie Young Jr., 36, remained
on life support.
-
- Police said the group chased Young onto the porch of
a house at 2021 N. 21st Lane and used bats, shovels and boards to pummel
him in an attack that left blood splattered floor to ceiling.
-
- At one point, Young forced his way into the lower unit
in a desperate bid for safety, the landlord said, but the kids dragged
him back outside, where the beating continued until police responded to
a neighbor's 911 call.
-
- The severity of the attack demonstrated an escalating
problem that plagued the area near Johnsons Park all summer, shaken neighbors
say: out-of-control teenagers who roam the streets intimidating residents.
-
- Incidents of mob violence are "tragic, unexplainable
events" and extremely rare, said Stan Stojkovic, associate dean of
criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
-
- Stojkovic said such incidents are kicked off by a precipitating
event, likely in this case when, police say, Young struck a 14-year-old
boy in the mouth.
-
- "The dynamic just unraveled and there was no control,"
Stojkovic said. "It's not something the criminal justice system really
can predict."
-
- Several details of the attack remained unknown Monday
night, such as why Young was in the area so far from his home in the 5600
block of N. 72nd St., if the kids knew him or where the confrontation began.
It also is unknown what charges the boys in custody will face, although
they could be charged as soon as today. Police continued to search Monday
for as many as 18 other juveniles involved in the assault.
-
- The viciousness of the beating was evident Monday by
the blood splattered on the floor, walls and even the 9-foot porch ceiling
at 2021 N. 21st Lane. A pile of latex gloves lay at the base of the steps
and the footprints of emergency workers and police who had to walk through
puddles of blood to secure the scene Sunday night were visible.
-
- A window was jarred out of its sill and a doorknob was
broken, apparently as the mob pulled Young out to continue the beating.
-
- Police say the attack occurred around 10:30 p.m. Sunday
after Young chased a small group after the egg was thrown. He caught a
14-year-old boy and punched him in the mouth, knocking out a tooth, police
said.
-
- The juveniles quickly assembled a larger group of 18
or 20 kids ranging in age from 10 to 18 and chased Young to the porch.
Police say the mob then beat the man with shovels, boards, sticks and bats.
-
- Gerard Johnson, who said he owns the duplex where the
beating occurred, came by the area around 2:30 a.m. Monday making a nightly
check when he discovered broken crates and discarded bats strewn on the
ground.
-
- Johnson said tenants told him Young eventually was thrown
off the porch onto the street in front of the duplex.
-
- A man and woman and a teenage boy live in the lower unit
of the duplex, the door Young tried to enter, Johnson said. The upper unit
is inhabited by three adults and an infant, he said. He would not name
the tenants, and no one answered the doors throughout the day.
-
- "In this neighborhood we have roaming teenage bands
of kids - and we're talking about very young kids - out at that time causing
trouble," Johnson said, adding that he does not live in the immediate
area.
-
- He said police have been called multiple times, but by
the time squad cars arrive the kids are gone.
-
- "They don't go to school, they don't do anything,"
he said. "They hang out."
-
- Neighbors said Monday that crime in the area is all too
common and that they were afraid for their safety to talk on the record
about what might have gone on Sunday night.
-
- One woman did say about 20 teenage boys had been gathering
in the neighborhood since 8 p.m. Sunday and acting "hyped."
-
- "Something was in the air, for real," she said.
-
- She said the boys hovered on the corner of 21st Lane
and Brown St., already carrying crates, poles and baseball bats.
-
- The boys were still out around midnight Sunday on the
corner of 23rd St. and Brown St. while police secured the area and gathered
evidence, said a 29-year-old man who also wouldn't give his name. The man
was walking at that time with an 18-year-old male friend, whom the boys
started taunting to fight, he said.
-
- "They don't know what they're getting themselves
into."
-
-
-
- Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Oct. 1,
2002.
- <http://www.jsonline.com/copyright.html>© Copyright
2002, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved.
-
- http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/sep02/84175.as
|
