Police say Friday, October 6th at about 8:00 p.m. along the 2800 block of the Monon Trail, four teenagers picked Arthur as their victim. The waited for him to come near then beat him and stole his bicycle.
"I was real sad to find out that it was teenagers," Arthur said.
"After he was struck across the head with a two by four he fell to the ground at which time he was punched and kicked numerous times," said Detective James Quigley of the Indianapolis Police Department. "Mr. Arthur could have very easily been killed that night, he could have been one kick from being killed that night."
Police arrested three of the four teens. A 14-year-old, a 15-year-old, and 16-year-old Montaz Lewis. Lewis is the only one facing adult felony charges for robbery and battery. The other two will face charges in juvenile court.
"The 16-year-old unfortunately almost seemed proud of his act," said Detective Quigley. "In all my years doing this job this is probably one of the most heinous crimes I have seen."But somehow, Mr. Arthur says he's already forgiven the teens. "I mean what's going on in their lives, you know, that at 14, 15, 16 years of age they are making a decision like this that is going to affect them for the rest of their life," Arthur said.
Police are still looking for the fourth teen, a black male who police say goes by the street name "Bootsy." He's described as about 6 feet tall between 16 and 18 years old. If you have information on this case call Crime Stoppers at 262-TIPS.
Excuse me, but I think a person who severely beats a person unconscious to steal his bicycle and money, and then covers his body in a pile of rubble and leaves him there to die committed something worse than robbery and battery.
6 comments:
I agree completely. They should be charged as adults. Personally, I think they should be charging parents as well. Maybe they would keep better track of where they are and what they are doing if they were held accountable for their crimes along with the under aged thugs. Pathetic.
Can the minors be charged as adults in this case?
How much time can each get if convicted on all counts?
The victim here displayed the uncanny forgiveness the Amish did last week.
It's an age-old lesson we have to re-learn to often:
There is power in forgiveness.
Bless him. I can tell he's getting better.
What a wonderful outpouring of support and help from his neighbors and friends!
I wonder if Prosecutor Brizzi will do the right thing and try to charge all these thugs for the maximum crimes, and also charge as many as possible as adults.
I'm as mad about the beating as anyone.
But would someone please explain to me, how it helps to put 13-year-olds in adult courts and prisons?
I have raised three kids, and I've wached their classmates do a variety of stupid things. Nothing this serious, but some pretty bad stuff. I have seen time and time again how wayward kids are brought back on track with the right intervention.
Something in these kids' upbrining set some pretty wild boundaries on acceptable behavior. Sadly, no responsible adult was there to catch the lesser incidents which undoubtedly preceded this heinous beating. No coach, pastor, teacher, uncle, or whatever.
But that does not mean they should be thrown into the junk heap. We do enough of that in criminal justice, all in the name of revenge.
Listen to the victim's own words, God bless him. He raises a valid point.
Anonymous at 8:33 do you mean a "junk heap" like the thugs left the victim to die in? I agree that kids can be helped in many nonviolent cases but this was more than merely stupid kid things. They just about killed the man, they knew what they were doing and they need to be removed from the streets. Next time they might get the job done.
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