Friday, August 23, 2024-A court heard horrific details about how five children allegedly b3at a disabled man to d3ath, prompting the 13-year-old girl blamed for landing the killer blow to shed tears in court.
Police Detective Harry Singleton
described at a pre-trial hearing on Thursday in Washington DC, USA, what he
witnessed the night of Reggie Brown's d3ath in October as well as an interview
he conducted with the 13-year-old, whom he said fatally kicked Brown in the
head.
He said the unidentified 13-year-old,
played 'the most brutal part of the murder,' as she and four of her friends
b3at the 64-year-old until he stopped breathing, WUSA 9 reports.
While Singleton was speaking, the
teenager started to cry.
She and three of her friends, all
between the ages of 12 to 15, are now set to face trial on second-degree murder
and assault with dangerous weapon charges.
The fifth girl aged 15, has pleaded guilty
to the lesser charge of assault with a dangerous weapon which prosecutors say
was her foot.
At previous court hearings, prosecutors revealed cellphone footage captured by at least one of the teenagers - showing the girls kicking Brown, stomping his head into the pavement, pulling his pants down around his ankles, removing his belt and beating him with it.
The video also reportedly showed them
celebrating afterwards.
Then, at a separate hearing on Tuesday, August 20, prosecutors also showed
video from the DC police homicide headquarters, in which Singleton could be
seen driving one of the teenagers and her mother to his office.
In the video, the teen claimed she and four
other girls were walking down Georgia Avenue when they saw an unidentified man
beating up Brown and dragging him by the collar, the Post reports.
She said she and her friends heard the adult
male yelling at Brown, saying, 'I gave you an hour and you didn't give me my
money.'
The teen said that one of her friends asked,
'Do you need help? Can we fight him?' at which point the unidentified man
ordered the girls to continue fighting Brown and allegedly threatened to kill
them if they didn't.
The teenager also said that she 'froze' after she saw Brown started bleeding
and stopped kicking him.
She claimed she 'soft kicked' Brown in his
leg, and told Singleton: 'I saw him take his last breath.'
But Singleton has since testified that despite the girl claiming the
unidentified man threatened her and her friends with a gun if they did not
fight Brown, there was no evidence that the man had a weapon in the video.
The five teens were finally charged with
Brown's murder in March, and have been in custody with as they await trial in
September.
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.
It is unclear what sentence the 15-year-old
may get after pleading guilty to the lesser charge.
Before his death, Brown was battling lupus -
a disease of the immune system, which affected his hands and feet - as well as
cancer.
Brown's family says they want justice for
his death.
'These
aren't girls. These are animals and they should be locked up for the maximum
amount of time,' Brown's sister Nasia Israel told the Post.
'He was on
his way home and they just took his life for nothing,' her brother, Samuel
Brown, added.
'He didn't
deserve this - no one deserved this.'
'Everybody
is just heartbroken, we are just trying to get through this,' one of Brown's
sisters told WUSA 9.
'We just
don't want this to happen to another family. We are not just taking a stand for
Reginald Brown, but for the whole entire American families,' she added.
0 Comments