Cops: 3 Kids Beat Man With Cinder Block

(CBS/AP)  Two 10-year-old boys and an older teen characterized as a ringleader were charged with beating a homeless man and smashing a concrete block into his face, leaving him bruised and bloody with broken bones.

The three, charged with aggravated battery, face a hearing next week to determine if they should remain in juvenile detention. At their first court appearance, the two younger boys were escorted from jail in oversized white jumpsuits, their hands chained in front of them and their legs in shackles.

From a hospital bed Friday, John D'Amico, 57, a homeless man who worked as a day laborer, described what happened to him Tuesday night and criticized the boys.

"Oh yeah, they were trying to kill me," D'Amico told CBS affiliate WKMG correspondent Tarik Minor. "Somebody throws a cinder block and wants to do it again, they're trying to kill you."

He said the kids tried to slam another cinder block on his face but police broke up the attack.

"They are dangerous," D'Amico told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The street doesn't need them. They need to be somewhere."

The youngsters are charged with aggravated battery; Daytona Beach police have not released the younger boys' names; they are reviewing evidence to decide whether the three will be charged as adults.

"For a 10-year-old to pick up a cinder block and smash somebody's face with it, that defies logic," police Chief Michael Chitwood told The Daytona Beach News-Journal on Thursday. He said the court system needs to take a close look at the children's backgrounds and families.

Neighbors say they come from troubled homes; Minor reported that not one of their parents showed up in court on their behalf.

D'Amico said he was walking with a friend through a Daytona Beach neighborhood just before 9 p.m. Tuesday when the trio on bicycles started throwing sand and small rocks at them. Then they got off their bikes and started throwing larger rocks, he said.

D'Amico said he fell into a wall after the 17-year-old punched him in the face, breaking the brick wall. One of the 10-year-olds then slammed a piece of the broken wall onto his face, he said.

"They were big kids for their age," D'Amico told the AP. "The little kid was taunting me. The big kid came over and just slugged me. If they just would have let me walk on, I would have walked on."

D'Amico has had reconstructive surgery on his face since the attack. He said he didn't think he was targeted simply for being homeless.

"I don't look that homeless. I'm not really dirty, slobby homeless," he said. "I'm familiar in the neighborhood. I don't know these kids, never seen them before."

D'Amico is now concerned about what will happened to him once he is released from the hospital. "When I'm back in the neighborhood, I have to worry about some kind of retaliation," he told WKMG. "Because I'm sure in a 10-year-old's mind somehow it's my fault."

A Department of Children & Families spokeswoman said she could not comment on whether the agency is investigating a lack of parental supervision in the case. A police report shows the parents were notified of the boys' arrests.

It was not immediately clear if the boys had attorneys. A message left with the public defender's office was not immediately returned Friday.

[mo005]

colonieny: What you just wrote is a load of bulls--t, I remember being ten years old and telling my friends no I would not put a barrel bomb up a cats but to see it explode. I knew to respect life at that young age as should they. I knew that this would either kill or mame this poor cat. But I did come from a home where we were taught better. Yes the parents should be hung out to dry for not teaching the kids to respect life and property. But in the same breath they are old enough to bear the responsibility for they'er actions. The 17 year old should be tried as an adult and sent to prison where he will become the prey. I am so sick of hearing about the poor kids today and how bad it is for them. The little turds have it made now days.

[knyghtwolf]

darkmeat4 is just pulling chains & rattling cages to see if he or she can get someone, anyone's blood pressure up. No one thinks like that, no one human that is, saying things in his/her postings are designed to irritate people sort of like cyber itching powder. Responding to his/her posts just gives him/her some jollies at the reader's expense.

[docpeter-2009]

Agnim wrote, "Those children ARE WITHOUT ADULT SUPPORT; there is a good chance they will go bad!"

It sounds like they have already gone bad to me.

As for darkmeat4's comments I do seriously hope you were being facetious when you wrots, "Who cares, it was just some worthless, homeless piece og filth. These little scamps are just good natured kids out to have a little fun at the expense of some drunken bum." The world has enough poor people, and we are expecting many more.

[colonieny]

You can not blame these kids. You don't know their background or what stress or pressures they have been under. What are their teachers like ? Do they give too much homework, are they to strick ? I imagine that they have had their own problems. It is society fault.

[agnim]

"Two 10-Year-Olds, 17-Year-Old Arrested For Attacking Homeless Man"

There should be some way for the PARENTS TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE, considering that they did not even turn up at the court to support their brats.

Those children ARE WITHOUT ADULT SUPPORT; there is a good chance they will go bad!

The parents who let their little terrorists loose on the society need to be held accountable!
And the state needs to be held accountable if it is shown that the parents do not have the wherewithal to take care of the children.

This is a very rich country. There are enough resources to take care of the children and give them proper guidance in order to avoid this TRAGEDY!

[sgt2dog]

It isn't culture, it is lazy parents. Send both parents to prison for 40 years. Take the kids and give them to people who want kids, and who will give those kids they type of discipline they need.

People are just lazy, parents are lazy, schools are lazy and filled with fufu type of personalities that young children just hate, and know how to manipulate.

Take that weak kneed little $hit of a University President, how he dealed with a riot on his campus. Make me sick!

Be a man - take control - don't accept - 2nd stage life! Do what is right no matter how much effort it takes...And that means taking a 17 year old boy that his parents can't control and putting him in stocks over the weekend, a little corporal punishment everytime he makes the wrong choice about staying out all night, fighting, stealing, telling lies, and just being a real jerk. You'd see just how fast these kids would start making you proud...

[toolmangler-2009]

"I remember in Florida when these two homeless homos kept harrasing kids on the street and the cops wouldn't believe them. Finnaly they beat their heads in with bats. Good thing I was a witness and the kids were cleared."
Posted by zootallures2 at 07:14 PM : Mar 30, 2007


zoo-2, please give us the date and place of this terrible occurance so we may render you all due rewards.

I googled for this atrocity but was unable to find any referance to 'homless attack on kids'
except for many stories like these.

Florida No. 1 in attacks on homeless, survey finds
"Florida was the number one state in violence against homeless people in 2006," said Michael Stoops,
William Ammons, 18, was charged in the slaying of 45-year-old Norris Gaynor, who was bludgeoned with a baseball bat and died of head injuries.

Florida led the United States with 42 crimes; Arizona was second with 17; and California, whose homeless population is about three times the size of Florida's, was third with 11.

Florida sounds like a good place to be 'from', 'specially since zoo-2 lives there.

[mainemade]

As long as there is hatred in the human heart, there will never be Peace on Earth.

[knyghtwolf]

So who DO you blame for this type of criminal activity? If bush is to blame, it would probably be about.000,000,000,000,1% and the rest would fall squarely on OUR social culture. Accountability is GONE here.When does accountability STOP being a number and become a fact? You have to factor in ALL circumstances on something like this for blame. WE are FAILING ourselves, our children,we are all guilty. We have taken the responsibilities as parents and a whole society and placed it squarely on the backs of a three ringed circus called accountability. Do you REALLY think that accusing bush of this shows any signs of critical thinking skills beyond typing cowardly rhetoric just to get noticed by unseen peers? I have often wondered why people believe in a god that they distainfully live so opposite of all their lives. We pride ourselves in saying EVERYTHING is UNDER GOD, which god, your god, my god, the god those kids believe in or the god of the 17 year old involved, how about the god that bush, cheney, gonzales, and anyone else in the current administration in "charge"? Hilary's god, Obama's god? For Christ's sake, if someone out there knows which god is the right one, and how we can get back to being human beings again, please share. IF YOU HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS,SHARE THEM BECAUSE LEARNING TO LOVE IS MUCH BETTER THAN CHEATING OURSELVES TO HATE. Children & adults die every day, kings & paupers die, we all die, but wouldn't be interesting to see a concept born that makes being alive worth it?

[dmzebuhr]

I think that when something like this happens, it reflects 100 percent on the parents, lets face it for children under the age of 18, the parents should be held accountable for their childrens actions and to me are just as responsible as the child. where were the parents when this happened, and why did they not know where their children were and what they were doing? we live in world of violence and hate that is probably not going to get much better. It would be a cold day in hell when i didn,t know where my child was and who they were with.as parents this is our job and i feel that some parents don't really want their child in the first place and don't really care what happens to them. this is not the fault of the child. we can just be thankful that this man was not hurt any worse or died from these injuries.
marie