A United States Court has been told how five children, ages 12 to 15 in Washington DC allegedly beat a disabled man, Reggie Brown, to death with the youngest of them, a 13-year old girl landing the killer blow which killed the man.
Brown was suffering from lupus which affected his hands and feet, as well as cancer. According to his family, Brown was on his way home when he was attacked by the girls.
At a pre-trial hearing of the matter on Thursday, Police Detective Harry Singleton told the court that on the night Reggie was killed in October by the children, the 13-year-old girl kicked Brown in the head until he stopped breathing after she and her four friends had beaten him.
They have been charged with second-degree murder and assault with a dangerous weapon.
Prosecutors presented before the court phone footage recorded by one of the girls, which showed the girls kicking and hitting Brown’s head into the pavement, pulling his pants down around his ankles, removing his belt and beating him with it, after which they celebrated killing him.
Narrating how they beat the man to death ,the 13-year old told the police while being interrogated that she and four other girls were walking down Georgia Avenue when they saw an unidentified man beating up Brown, dragging him by the collar and yelling, ‘I gave you an hour and you didn’t give me my money.’
She claimed that one of her friends asked the man ‘Do you need help? Can we fight him?’ She said the unidentified man ordered them to continue fighting Brown and allegedly threatened to kill them if they didn’t.
She further claimed that she ‘froze’ after she saw Brown start bleeding and stopped kicking him. ” ‘I saw him take his last breath,” she said
Disproving her claim, Singleton told the court there was no evidence that the unidentified man had a weapon in the video with which he threatened the girls.
After being shown the video of the incident in court,, the 13-year old burst into tears.
If convicted, four of the teens could face a maximum penalty of confinement to a Department of Youth Rehabilitation facility until they turn 21 after which they would have to be released by law, while the 15-year-old is awaiting the sentence to be passed on her after pleading guilty to the lesser charge of assault.
