Posted by Nicholas Stix
Seneca police referring assault case to federal authorities
By Ray Chandler
March 28, 2012, at 6:08 p.m.
Anderson Independent Mail
SENECA —Six men have been charged with beating a North Carolina man and police say they are referring the case to federal authorities to see if the men might be charged with hate crimes.Seneca Police Chief John Covington said the investigation indicated that race was a factor in the attack, so the case file would be transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The men who have been charged are black. The man who was beaten is white.
The six men are charged with assault and battery by mob. [Until recently, that was legally called, “lynching.”] They are Teryn L. Robinson, 18, Tray Devon Holland, 19, Justin Dimon Alexander, 20, Derick Lee Williams, 22, Kino Martinez Jones, 25, and Montrez Obrian Jones, 22.
Seneca police, along with Oconee County deputies and agents of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, arrested the six, all of whom are from the Seneca area, on Wednesday.
All were still being held late Wednesday in the Oconee County detention center.
The arrests followed an investigation that began March 17, when Seneca police officers arrived about 12:50 a.m. at the parking lot of Applebee's at 696 By Pass 123 in response to reports of a man being beaten.
They found Terry Moore, 32, of Macon County, N.C., lying in the parking lot. He was taken to Oconee Medical Center.
According to a statement given later by Moore, he had been fishing with friends in Oconee County all day on March 16 and the group capped the day by going to the Applebee's.
As the group left, Moore said, he went to the restroom while his companions went to their vehicles. When he went into the parking lot, Moore said, he was taunted by members of a group of 15 to 20 blacks who called him names such as "tree honky" and "cracker".
One of the group hit him, Moore said, and as he reached for the alleged assailant, "everything went black."
According to one of Moore's companions, one of the assailants used a stun gun on Moore.
Moore said that he recalled being on the ground surrounded by feet and being beaten. According to one of Moore's companions, one of those around Moore appeared to try to protect Moore's head from injury.
According to Covington, none of the suspects knew Moore.
"At this time the case will remain under further active investigation and we will proceed with the state-level charges," said Covington.
[Previously, at WEJB/NSU, on the racist, SC lynching of Carter Strange:
“Columbia, SC: In Non-Bias Attack, Eight Raceless Assailants Jump 18-Year-Old from Behind, Beat Him Almost to Death” ;
“One Suspect (Out of Eight) Indentified in Columbia, S.C., ‘Jogger Assault’”;
“Near Fatal, Columbia, SC, 8-on-1, Black-on-White Attack Not a Hate Crime”;
“Columbia, SC, Hate Crime: Bond Hearing, Charges Laid”;
“8-on-1, Suckerpunch, Black Hate Crime Attack on Carter Strange in Columbia, SC: Selected Reader Comments to WLTX’ ‘8 Suspects in Custody for 5 Points Beating of 18-Year-Old Carter Strange’”;
“Carter Strange Beating Update, on NBC Today Show”;
“Carter Strange Beating: Some Juvis to be Charged as Adults; Otherwise, Usual, ‘Not-a-Hate-Crime’ Official Story”;
“In Carter Strange Case, Defense Attorneys Argue Black Attackers Who Beat White Within an Inch of His Life were ‘Just Having Fun,’ and Can’t Possibly be Convicted of Conspiracy; Prosecutors: Two Juvis Should be Tried as Adults”;
“Carter Strange Beating Update”;
“‘Twenty Strikes, and You’re Out!’: Yet Another Carter Strange Attacker Gets a Break”; and
“The Carter Strange Case: Vicki Strange Speaks Out Against Judge’s Kid Gloves Treatment of Black Assailant Who, as Part of a Racist Lynch Mob, Sucker-Punched, Stomped, and Left Her Son for Dead.”]
Why does the title have to refer to Obama?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous ? Or " Gutless"?
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