One suspect is only 14 years old
Five suspects — three adults and two juveniles — have been charged in a brutal assault caught on video outside a convenience store in Klein, Texas, last month.
Arrest warrants have been issued for a pair of 19 year olds — Eric Bradley and Ezkeyeleon Wilson — as well as for 18-year-old Seth Coles, KTRK-TV reported. Two other suspects — ages 16 and 14 — are also charged with assault, KTRK said.
Anyone who knows how to find Bradley, Wilson, and Coles are asked to call the Harris County Sheriff’s Office Violent Crime Unit at 713-274-9100 or Crime Stoppers, the station said.
What’s the background? The victim in the June 14 attack — a shopper at the Food Mart at 7134 Oakwood Glen Blvd. — was waiting to buy some items when a group tried to cut in line, KTRK-TV reported in an earlier story.
“I looked over and said, ‘There’s a line for a reason,'” the shopper told the station.
Words were exchanged, and he added to KTRK that the group mocked his hair and clothes.
Then comes the beatdown
After he paid and left, the group met him in the parking lot and took turns kicking and punching him, the station said.
The victim told KTRK he just took the beating. Video of the attack shows he didn’t fight back or protect himself.
“I don’t know what else I could do,” he added to the station. “The fifth one at the end came out of the store after purchasing goods and came up to me and kicked me in the face and said, ‘Black lives matter, [expletive].'”
The victim suffered a swollen lip, bruising, and a cut near his eye, KTRK reported, adding that Harris County Sheriff’s deputies said he refused to seek treatment.
Here’s surveillance video of the attack:
The victim and his girlfriend asked not to be identified out of fear for their safety, the station said, adding that she said she’s received death threats.
“I really hope they’re caught before someone else gets hurt,” his girlfriend added to KTRK. “I hope that the people take this and don’t say, ‘It’s white against black.’ I don’t want this to be the statement. I want it to be, ‘Here’s a man who was checking out and stood up for himself, and he was targeted for that.'”
Some suspects are believed to be tied to another attack Investigators believe some of the suspects in the Food Mart attack are tied to another brutal assault a few days later in southeast Houston, KTRK said in its latest story.
Video from the Houston attack shows a car backing up in a parking lot when it was hit by an SUV, the station said, adding that the SUV’s driver got out and was beaten unconscious by up to six people.