Saturday, January 14, 2006

No Regards For Human Life

Is this what the world is coming to? This was senseless violence,of one human on another. With no evident reason for doing what they did. It wasn't for revenge, or material gain. The victims were homeless, and probably didn't even know their attackers. Those who perpetuated the crime had no idea they would end up on camera. It wasn't a crime of aggression, they attacked the victims in their sleep. They were running even with bats in their hands. I bet they're somewhere shaking in their boots, so scared they can't sleep. What I believe, was a cruel heartless joke. Ending up taking someones life, and seriously injuring two others. My gut feeeling tells me, these are going to be. Some out of control, well to do teenagers. With a history of little infractions, in the past. That their parents paid off. All speculations aside, we do know this. We live in a society where people are violent just for fun. These predators beat someone to death for no reason, while they were sleeping. I know people are going to say it's racial, but I don't think it was. I think this has more to do with what's considered class, than the victims race. The fact that the victims were homeless. Leads me to believe the attackers considered them expendable. I hope when they catch these criminals they will punish them accordingly. Not just give them a slap on the hand. This is like one of those video games, except the characters are real people.

4 Comments:

Blogger Common said...

Florida Teens arrested for videotaped beating of homeless man

By Bill Hirschman & Brian Haas, Staff Writers

January 16, 2006, 12:48 PM CST

FORT LAUDERDALE - A Broward county judge on Monday refused to release a 17-year-old suspect in the beating death of a homeless man last week. The other suspect's hearing was delayed one day.

The judge, Steven DeLuca, also ordered Thomas Daugherty held for 21 days under juvenile detention and signed an order for a psychological examination of the Plantation youth. Daugherty is being treated as a juvenile, prosecutors have not yet formally announced whether the teen will be charged as a juvenile or an adult.

DeLuca also denied a request for home detention by defense attorney Jerry Williams. If granted, the request would have allowed Daugherty to remain at home under arrest with an electronic monitor.

Daugherty, who was shackled, appeared upset during his court appearance.

A bond hearing for the other suspect in the case, Brian Hooks, 18, also of Plantation, was rescheduled for Tuesday after his attorney failed to appear in court. He is charged as an adult.

Hooks and Daugherty face murder charges in the death of Norris Gaynor, 45, and aggravated battery charges in the videotaped beating of Jacques Pierre, 58, police Capt. Michael Gregory said Sunday.

The teens are also suspects in the beating of Raymond Perez, 49, authorities said.

``We believe the current charges do not appropriately reflect Brian's responsibility and that, when all the facts come to light, it will be evident that Brian's involvement is far more limited than has been speculated,'' said attorney Jeremy Kroll, who represents Hooks.

Surveillance video images of Pierre being beaten with what appeared to be baseball bats helped police track down the two teens, who turned themselves in to police Sunday, police said.

-- Staff Writer Tonya Alanez and The Associated Press

Earlier story follows

Two witnesses saw the brutal slaying of a homeless man in a Fort Lauderdale park, an arrest report released Sunday reveals.

The two watched as Brian Hooks and Thomas Daugherty walked up to Norris Gaynor on Thursday morning, baseball bats in hand, according to Fort Lauderdale police. Moments later, the witnesses saw Daugherty smash his bat into Gaynor's chest and head, the report says, leaving him unconscious and dying on the bench he chose as his bed.

Police would not identify the witnesses or say how they happened at the scene, or what motivated the attackers. One victim of Thursday's predawn spree that left two homeless men hospitalized and one dead said he saw a third man running away with the attackers. Police have said a fourth man might have been involved.

Hooks and Daugherty, who live eight blocks apart in Plantation Isles, surrendered separately Sunday after driving back from out of state, said Capt. Michael Gregory, head of detectives for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.

Hooks' attorney said his client's involvement was limited. A woman at the home of Daugherty's mother in Tennessee declined to comment.

Hooks, 18, was held in the Broward County Jail, and Daugherty, 17, in the Juvenile Assessment Center on detectives' allegations of murder and aggravated battery.

The murder allegation means they will be held without bail unless a judge decides otherwise at a hearing expected today. Prosecutors still must consider charges.

Meanwhile, detectives will widen their investigation to include other recent attacks on the homeless in Fort Lauderdale, Gregory said.

The trail leading to the arrests began with a surveillance videotape of the first beating, Gregory said. The tape was released to the news media about noon Thursday, eight hours after the last attack. Ten hours later, people posting messages on a local racing Web site's forum listed Daugherty's name as one of the suspects. Police monitored the Web site for other clues.

Meanwhile, tips poured in from students, parents and neighbors of the teens -- more than 100 of them, Gregory said.

Within 48 hours of the attacks, investigators found the two witnesses who signed statements describing the fatal attack on Gaynor, according to the arrest report on Hooks.

Sometime Friday, detectives contacted the suspects' families, who disclosed the teens had left the state, Gregory said. One teen had relatives in Tennessee, the other in Indiana. Police negotiated with the families, their attorneys and the teens themselves to surrender.

Investigators announced Saturday afternoon that the arrests were "imminent," but Hooks and Daugherty didn't appear that day.

That evening, police searched both teens' homes and a police officer was seen carrying a baseball bat from Hooks' house. Police would not discuss what was found in the homes.

The teens returned to Broward County Saturday night or Sunday morning.

Hooks surrendered about 9:30 a.m. Sunday, said his attorney, Jeremy Kroll.

"We believe the current charges do not appropriately reflect Brian's responsibility and that, when all the facts come to light, it will be evident that Brian's involvement is far more limited than has been speculated," Kroll said.

He said he could not discuss Hooks' background or where he had been. Kroll said the family had no comment at this time.

Daugherty surrendered about noon, Gregory said.

A woman who answered the phone at the Sparta, Tenn., home listed for Daugherty's mother Sunday afternoon said, "No comment, please," and then hung up.

Both teens' actions and demeanor on Sunday were "what you would expect of an everyday teen," the detective supervisor said.

"They were quiet and then invoked their right to not speak," Gregory said. "They were polite and cooperative throughout the booking process."

The crimes they are accused or suspected of made headlines and news broadcasts from New York to Halifax to France.

At Sunday night's Billy Joel concert, the singer said he had read about the beatings. He said he had once been homeless himself and that if he had been attacked when he was on the streets, he might not be performing before a huge crowd at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise.

The first attack was the beating of Jacques Pierre, 58, at 1:20 a.m. on the Florida Atlantic University and Broward Community College downtown Fort Lauderdale campus. A security camera caught two teens chasing and beating Pierre near where he usually slept.

The second victim, Norris Gaynor, 45, was ambushed on a bench in the Riverwalk park near the Esplanade Pavilion. A friend found his unconscious and bleeding body and called 911. Gaynor died about three hours later at a hospital.

The two witnesses watched as Daugherty and Hooks, armed with baseball bats, confronted Gaynor, the arrest report stated. Daugherty beat Gaynor about the head and chest "while Hooks stood by," it says. The witnesses told police they didn't see Hooks deliver any blows to Gaynor.

The teens are being called only suspects in the third beating, the 4 a.m. attack in the Church by the Sea memorial garden near the 17th Street Causeway. Raymond Perez, 49, was trying to sleep when a blow from a bat woke him up. He crawled to the road and flagged down an ambulance.

Both survivors are recovering at Broward General Medical Center from head wounds and fractures..

Scott Russell, a part-time Fort Lauderdale police officer who works with the homeless, said he hoped something positive could come from the publicity.

"If anything good can come from this, exposure would be it," Russell said.

The arrests cheered homeless advocates, but didn't assuage their long-term fears, said Sean Cononie, director of the nonprofit Cosac Foundation that shelters the homeless in Hollywood.

"Some are wondering if, like there was Columbine and then there were eight other cases, will this give other kids the same idea?"

Fort Lauderdale police are still seeking information about attacks on homeless people. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.

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