We're Not Outnumbered

I posted an article about the beatings earlier. I was hoping the public wouldn't be so callous, not to identify the attackers. I was pleasantly surprised. Here is an account, of what took place after the video aired. The things people do sometimes make you wonder. I would consider this proof. Those of who are decent, we're not outnumbered.



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?"