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Man Beaten By Mob, In Critical Condition
Matthew Owens lying in the ICU at USA Medical Center.
By:
|
WKRG
Published: April 23, 2012
Published: April 23, 2012
MOBILE, Alabama --
Mobile police need your help to catch a mob that beat Matthew Owens so badly that he's in critical condition.
According to police, Owens fussed at some kids playing basketball in
the middle of Delmar Drive about 8:30 Saturday night. They say the kids
left and a group of adults returned, armed with everything but the
kitchen sink.
Police tell News 5 the suspects used chairs, pipes and paint cans to beat Owens.
Owens' sister, Ashley Parker, saw the attack. "It was the scariest
thing I have ever witnessed." Parker says 20 people, all African
American, attacked her brother on the front porch of his home, using
"brass buckles, paint cans and anything they could get their hands on."
Police will only say "multiple people" are involved.
What Parker says happened next could make the fallout from the brutal
beating even worse. As the attackers walked away, leaving Owen bleeding
on the ground, Parker says one of them said "Now thats justice for
Trayvon." Trayvon Martin is the unarmed teenager police say was shot and
killed February 26 by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in
Samford, Florida.
Police canvassed the area, but did not find any suspects. They're
asking anyone with information to call them at 251-208-7211, Crime
Stoppers at 251-208-7000, or text a tip to 274637 and include the
keyword CRIME 411.
Trayvon Martin cited in case of black on white beating
According to reports, two Chicago teens robbed a man at "branch-point" Tuesday, then punched him a number of times. When questioned by the police later, the two said the attack was motivated by their feelings over the Trayvon Martin case.
Alton L. Hayes, III was one of the
perpetrators. The 18-year-old and a friend, 15, are both
African-American. According to reports, they walked up behind their
alleged victim. The younger one held the man's arms at his side while
Hayes threatened him with a large branch saying, "Empty your pockets,
white boy."
They searched the 19-year-old man's pockets before throwing him to
the ground and hitting him in the head and the back. Hayes and his
underage partner ran from the scene but were soon found by the police,
arrested at gunpoint and charged with attempted robbery, aggravated
battery and a perpetuating a hate crime. Cook County State's Attorney's
office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said that, when questioned by the
police, Hayes said the attack was racially motivated.
Conservative blogger Robert Averach wrote
of the event, "The mainstream media are not terribly interested in this
story. That's because their outrage is only a tactic in the liberal war
against Conservatives. Liberals are not really upset about Trayvon
Martin's death. They only view Martin as a prop in their kabuki
theater."
‘Trayvon' shouted as group attacks Good Samaritan
The name of Trayvon Martin was invoked again Wednesday night in Gainesville during an attack by a group that police say stomped on a white man who was scuffling with a black robbery suspect on the Bo Diddley Community Plaza.
The robbery suspect, Carl
Milton Babb, 50, had been released from prison earlier in the day after
serving more than two years in prison for the same crime he is accused
of committing Wednesday — snatching a purse from a woman near the
downtown plaza.
According
to a Gainesville Police Department arrest report, Babb approached a
woman eating dinner at the Lunchbox on the plaza at about 8:50 p.m. and
asked her for a light.
When she said she didn't have one, Babb took off with her purse, which contained her $500 cellphone, according to the report.
The woman's dinner companion and another person took off after Babb.
When
her friend caught up with Babb, according to the police report, Babb
punched him in the face and grabbed his hair, but he was able to keep
Babb pinned down, according to the report.
The
scene attracted a crowd, and a number of people on the plaza approached
Babb and the Good Samaritan, who tried to explain that Babb had just
stolen his friend's purse.
GPD
spokeswoman Cpl. Angelina Valuri said some members of the crowd shouted
"Trayvon!" and that at least three of members of the crowd began
stomping on the hands of the woman's friend to force him to let go of
Babb.
Babb, who was listed as homeless, was arrested by police a few blocks away.
Valuri
said some witnesses to the robbery tried to calm down the crowd,
affirming the victim's story that he was trying to stop a man accused of
a crime and retrieve his friend's purse.
"The crowd was acting off of
emotion without knowing all of the facts of this case," Valuri said,
adding that investigators didn't immediately know the names or races of
the men or women who stomped on the victim.
It
was the second attack in the past week in Gainesville in which
assailants yelled the first name of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black
17-year-old who was shot and killed by crime-watch volunteer George
Zimmerman as the teen walked back to his father's girlfriend's apartment
in Sanford on Feb. 26.
State
Attorney Angela Corey had announced at 6 p.m. Wednesday in
Jacksonville, less than three hours before the incident on Gainesville's
downtown plaza, that Zimmerman had been charged with second-degree
murder in Martin's death.
In
Gainesville early Saturday, a 27-year-old white man was beaten by a
group of between five and eight black men as he walked home on Southwest
23rd Terrace, police said.
The
victim told police the attackers shouted "Trayvon!" before beating him,
though he was intoxicated and could not give a description of the
attackers or their vehicle.
Valuri
said Thursday that investigators had no leads in the case and still
were depending on members of the public to come forward with
information.
"Emotions
with (the Trayvon Martin) case, even though it didn't occur in our
community, emotions are running high across the nation, including the
city of Gainesville," Valuri said, referring to how the Martin case
reared its head in Gainesville on Wednesday. "It's very unfortunate
that, with this particular case, a person who was just trying to do the
right thing ended up getting hurt."
According to the GPD report, Babb told Officer Jon Rappa he was "high on crack and doesn't remember what happened."
He also said he had been released from prison earlier in the day.
The officer checked with the Florida Department of Corrections, and it was true.
Babb
was released Wednesday from Holmes Correctional Institution in Bonifay
after serving two years and two months after he was convicted of felony
battery and petit theft for a purse snatching.
The site of those crimes? The Bo Diddley Community Plaza.
On
Wednesday night, Babb was charged with robbery, a third-degree felony,
and battery, a first-degree misdemeanor, in connection with the latest
purse snatching.
According
to the DOC's offender database, Babb spent much of the 1980s and early
1990s in prison for burglary and theft and was imprisoned from May 2,
2005, to March 31, 2009, for burglaries and thefts that occurred in late
2004.
Less than a year later, on Feb. 1, 2010, his latest sentence began.