Teens Face Murder Charges For Beating

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.

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, Brian Hooks, 18, and Thomas S. Daugherty, 17, within a day, investigators said.

Shomari Stone of CBS News station WFOR-TV reports the surrenders, which were negotiated with their families' attorneys, came Sunday after an investigation in which police received over a hundred tips from the public and were able to identify the suspects on a videotape of one of the attacks.

WFOR-TV also reports that a baseball bat was seized Saturday night by police, as possible evidence, during a search of Hooks' home.

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.