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Tape of beating helped police nab suspects
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-16 20:03
A surveillance video that captured images of a homeless
man being savagely beaten helped police track down the two South Florida teenage
suspects, officials said.
In this booking
photo provided by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department Sunday, Jan. 15,
2006, shows Brian Hooks, 18, who is suspected of being involved in the
beatings of three homeless men. Hooks and Thomas Daugherty turned
themselves in to the police Sunday. The two face murder charges in the
death of Norris Gaynor and aggravated battery charges in the videotaped
beating of Jacques Pierre. [AP] |
More than 100 tips were generated from the video and photographs of the
Thursday beating, and investigators and made contact with the families of the
suspects within a day, investigators said.
Family members and their attorneys negotiated the Sunday surrender of Brian
Hooks, 18, and Thomas S. Daugherty, 17, who had fled the state.
Both will be charged with the murder of Norris Gaynor and aggravated battery
for the videotaped beating of Jacques Pierre, police Capt. Michael Gregory said.
The teens are also suspects in the beating of a third man, Raymond Perez, 49,
whose case remains under investigation, Gregory said.
The attack on Pierre, 58, took place on the Fort Lauderdale campus of Florida
Atlantic University, where he had been sleeping on a bench shortly after 1 a.m.
Thursday.
Video and still pictures showing two males chasing and beating him with what
appeared to be baseball bats were broadcast and published nationally.
"The video was critical in getting the word out," Gregory said.
Gaynor, 45, was killed a few blocks away from where Pierre was attacked.
Gaynor died from severe head injuries, authorities said.
Daugherty and Hooks invoked the right to remain silent when taken into
custody. They were being held at separate facilities pending official charges
from a grand jury, Gregory said. Officials were not immediately able to provide
the names of the teens' attorneys.
Gregory said police were investigating whether the teens were involved in
other beatings and if they had accomplices.
"We do know there have been other assaults of homeless in Fort Lauderdale,"
Gregory said.
There were 105 attacks on homeless in 2004, including 25 deaths, according to
the Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition for the Homeless. The majority of
attackers were young men between the ages of 16 and 25.
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