“I Feel Like Killing Someone”; Sucker-Punch Hate Crime in San Antonio? 6’3,” 250 lb., Michael Joseph Fobbs Jr., 21, Says He Beat Raceless, Faceless Joseph Keith Richard, 56, Sitting on a Railroad Station Bench to Death with His Bare Hands, in Anticipatory Self-Defense

 

Police says [sic] Michael Joseph Fobbs Jr., 21, beat another man to death at an Amtrak station east of downtown [two weeks ago]. (Bexar County Sheriff's Office mug shot)
 

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

Sounds like a hate crime to me. In the video at the linked story, one of the news readers spoke of a “random” crime, and 12 days later, the media still refuse to release a picture of the vic. Other reports had Fobbs saying, “I feel like killing someone,” just before murdering Joseph Keith Richard of Marble Falls, who was three days away from celebrating his 57th birthday.

A middle-aged black neighbor said Fobbs was “a good kid” and a “gentle giant,” who was “no trouble whatsoever.” During the videotape, the neighbor said nothing at all about the victim, but chuckled at the thought of the killer "snapping."

The gentle giant reportedly went to the men’s room after murdering Richard, and changed out of his bloody shirt, into a clean one.

While the media have been at pains to act as defense counsel for the killer, they have reduced his victim to invisibility. Joseph Keith Richard has no face, no race, no life history, and no family.
 

Man pummeled to death at train station
By Vianna Davila
July 7, 2014
Updated: July 7, 2014 9:57 p.m.
San Antonio Express-News

SAN ANTONIO — Immediately after pummeling a man to death last week during what appeared to be an unprovoked attack at an Amtrak station east of downtown, Michael Joseph Fobbs Jr.'s demeanor seemed to change, witnesses said.

He went from angry to “calm and detached” as he retrieved a new shirt from his luggage and changed out of his blood-covered garments in the station's bathroom, witnesses told police.

Fobbs, 21, was charged Thursday with murder. He remained at Bexar County Jail Monday in lieu of $150,000 bail.

Two passengers waiting for the next train told police they saw Fobbs, of Cibolo, pacing back and forth angrily just before 11 p.m. Thursday.

The witnesses reported Fobbs gave them “an angry look” several times, prompting one to ask Fobbs if there was a problem. Fobbs walked away and then entered and exited the waiting area several times, still apparently angry, the witnesses told police.

When he went outside the third time, he started pummeling a man, 56, who had been sitting on a bench, according to police.

A witness said the man on the bench “was just sitting there” when Fobbs began punching him. Authorities have not yet released his identity, pending notification of next of kin.

San Antonio police officers arrived and reported Fobbs was “very calm and was cooperative, but appeared void of expression and emotion.”

Fobbs told police he felt threatened by the man on the bench, but that the man had done “nothing” to make him feel that way.

Fobbs then said that he hit the man first so the man would not have a chance to hurt him.

Police wrote in a report that Fobbs “did not appear to be in a normal state of mind, and appeared detached from the incident that just happened.” Fobbs told police he did not have any mental disabilities.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari did not say if Fobbs or the man who died were passengers. But in an emailed statement, Magliari wrote that “information about individual travel plans has been given to the police as we assist in their investigation.”

According to the Amtrak website, the Sunset Limit train, which runs east and west, arrives at the station at 4:50 a.m. on Fridays and departs a few hours later, at 6:25 a.m. The Texas Eagle route, which travels north and south, arrives at the station at 4:05 a.m. on Fridays and leaves at 7 a.m.

The westbound Texas Eagle train stops at the station at 9:55 p.m. every day.

Surveillance video captured the attack, according to SAPD.

Staff Writers Drew Joseph and Jolene Almendarez contributed to this report.

Reader comments from a different SAEN story on the same atrocity.

• MomIsOldSchool
• Rank 63
What kind of animal attacks an innocent 57 year old person for no reason?
Hope he catches the death penalty... but we know it won't happen.
Obama and Holder wouldn't allow it.
Welcome to the war on white people.
• 6 days ago
• 2 Likes
•
• Eric73301
• Rank 181
@MomIsOldSchool
War on white people? Well it's about darn time!
• 6 days ago
• 0 Likes
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• 78210
• Rank 332
@MomIsOldSchool It sounds like he is extremely mentally ill. That's his problem.
• 6 days ago
• 0 Likes
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• ChristianS
• Rank 305
The attacker should get the death penalty!
• 6 days ago
• 1 Like

• seriovitium
• Rank 3658
This is just more evidence that we need comprehensive fist control and we need it now. People are dying out there. Additionally, this poor fellow Fobbs felt threatened by Richard - I'm guessing Richard was white. We clearly need comprehensive white person control so that innocent victims like Fobbs can be free from these sorts of threatening situations.
• 6 days ago
• 0 Likes

• MiguelWilliams
• Rank 416
Had it been a white guy pounding a black it would have been automatically a hate crime and "proof that we still have not progressed" in this country. But other way around and it is just a "simple" case of a poor helpless deranged person who the system failed.