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27344: Hermantin(News)ns tape beating of grad student (fwd)




From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Wed, Jan. 25, 2006


JUVENILE VIOLENCE
Teens tape beating of grad student
Four teens were charged with assaulting a Haitian college student while videotaping the attack, but Philadelphia police are not calling it a hate crime.
By ROBERT MORAN
Knight Ridder News Service

PHILADELPHIA - Four Philadelphia teenagers have been arrested and charged with beating a Drexel University graduate student, a Haitian immigrant, and nearly killing him by shoving him into traffic -- while videotaping the attack, police said.

''It's a very disturbing film,'' said police Lt. John F. Walker. ``It's just mind-boggling.''

The 30-year-old engineering student, a Haitian immigrant, was assaulted at 1:10 p.m. Friday as he was walking to his apartment, Walker said Monday.

The incident recalls a similar one in Fort Lauderdale on Jan 12. Three teenagers have been charged with murder in connection with the beatings of three homeless men that night. One of those beatings was captured by a video camera on the Fort Lauderdale campus of Florida Atlantic University as two of the boys beat a homeless man with baseball bats. One of the men attacked was killed; two others were severely injured and hospitalized for several days.

Philadelphia police said the victim now wants to leave the city and return home to Haiti, Walker said. ''He's very fearful of his life and of living in that area,'' he said.

The victim asked police not to release his name out of fear for his safety, said Capt. Benjamin Naish, a police spokesman. Police say they do not believe the attack was a hate crime.

The four teens -- one 18, two 17-year-olds, and a teen who was 16 at the time of the attack and turned 17 Monday -- face charges of attempted murder and related crimes, officials said.

RANDOM ATTACK

Walker said the teens were walking after a scheduled half-day of school when they taped themselves planning the random attack.

''They were talking about [how] it was an early day [from school], the weather was nice, and what they were going to do,'' Walker said. ``In the beginning, it's almost like a documentary.''

''Unfortunately, this poor student was the first person they came upon,'' Walker said.

One of the boys punched the graduate student in the jaw and slammed him into the wall of a building, Walker said. Another boy then jumped in and started to pummel the Drexel student.

As the blows were being landed, the teens could be heard on the tape saying ''ooh'' and ''aah,'' Walker said.

The victim was then pushed between two parked cars and into traffic, officials said. The victim was not hit by any vehicles. He was treated for a dislocated jaw and cuts to his mouth at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.

The attack, which lasted 30 to 45 seconds, was reported to police, and patrol officers apprehended six or seven students within minutes, officials said.

Police seized the camera and tape, which was not being shown publicly.

The four alleged attackers are students at University City High School.

They are being expelled from school, said Vincent Thompson, a school district spokesman. One of the four played varsity basketball at the high school, Thompson said.

TEACHER `STUNNED'

Jeffrey Rosenberg, a health and physical education teacher at University City High and the teachers' union representative in the building, said one of those arrested was a student in his class.

He said he was stunned by the news.

''You meet these kids. You have a good rapport with them in classes. It just makes you wonder: How much do we really know them?'' he said. ``It's very disturbing, very upsetting.''

The student accused of striking the first blow was arrested Monday morning at the high school, Walker said.

The oldest, Tyrez Osborne, 18, was being held at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, prison spokesman Robert Eskind said.

Before the beating, the teens are seen on the tape rapping and hanging out with two teenage girls, Walker said. The girls are being sought for questioning.

Robert Moran reports for the Philadelphia Inquirer.