Alonzo
05-09-2008, 03:08 AM
The parents of two teenage boys brutally attacked after revealing their faith spoke exclusively to ABC15 about the incident.
They did not want their names published because they fear retribution.
The father of one teen says his son has a broken collarbone and several lacerations on his face and back.
“He looked like he's been in some kind of a brawl and got the worst end of it. (I’m) just not used to seeing any of my kids in that situation no parent should see their kids in that kind of situation,” said the father.
The mother said, “I just broke down I just couldn't believe the way he looked. It was like surreal it was like something out of a bad dream and we just wanted to wake up.”
The parents said their daughter, who is their son’s older sister, witnessed the entire fight leaving her traumatized.
The mom explained her daughter was at first trying to stop the beating, “She tried, she screamed a lot, but this person was so into the beating he didn’t want to stop. She could not believe what she saw happen.”
The mother added by the time they got to the scene her outgoing daughter, “…was completely in emotional shutdown, fists clenched.” The mother plans to get counseling for her son and daughter.
“We received a fire call from the Fire Department saying they are treating my son for the injuries,” said the father of the other victim. He added that his son is suffering from a broken nose, fractured cheekbone, and several lacerations.
“I think the most important thing we could do as a society to avoid these types of things is for parents to be responsible for the raising of their children, “ he said.
On Wednesday night at a Gilbert Human Relations Commission meeting a Gilbert Police Lieutenant read a report about the attack.
He said there were junior high school-aged children playing in a pool with “Airsoft” pellet guns.
He added they were curing and using profanity.
The Mormon teenagers were playing Frisbee.
According to the Lieutenant the Mormon victims walked over to the pool to ask the kids to quiet down and clean up their language.
The kids responded by asking if the victims were Mormon, the victims said “yes”.
That’s when police say the junior high-school aged children began to fire pellets at the Mormons, taunt them, and spoke Mormon slurs.
Shortly after this a truck pulls up with some high school-aged teenagers.
We now know two of those are Mesquite High School football players.
Police believe one is the older brother of one of the younger kids in the pool and are investigating if he thought he was coming to the defense of his younger brother.
Due to the time span between the Mormon question and the attack Police say they still are not certain this was a hate crime.
They say it was fifteen minutes from the time the kids asked the question to the time the attack started.
http://www.abc15.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=adf1f80f-fdd2-4c5a-98dc-f637a7dee6b2
Thought this was interesting.
They did not want their names published because they fear retribution.
The father of one teen says his son has a broken collarbone and several lacerations on his face and back.
“He looked like he's been in some kind of a brawl and got the worst end of it. (I’m) just not used to seeing any of my kids in that situation no parent should see their kids in that kind of situation,” said the father.
The mother said, “I just broke down I just couldn't believe the way he looked. It was like surreal it was like something out of a bad dream and we just wanted to wake up.”
The parents said their daughter, who is their son’s older sister, witnessed the entire fight leaving her traumatized.
The mom explained her daughter was at first trying to stop the beating, “She tried, she screamed a lot, but this person was so into the beating he didn’t want to stop. She could not believe what she saw happen.”
The mother added by the time they got to the scene her outgoing daughter, “…was completely in emotional shutdown, fists clenched.” The mother plans to get counseling for her son and daughter.
“We received a fire call from the Fire Department saying they are treating my son for the injuries,” said the father of the other victim. He added that his son is suffering from a broken nose, fractured cheekbone, and several lacerations.
“I think the most important thing we could do as a society to avoid these types of things is for parents to be responsible for the raising of their children, “ he said.
On Wednesday night at a Gilbert Human Relations Commission meeting a Gilbert Police Lieutenant read a report about the attack.
He said there were junior high school-aged children playing in a pool with “Airsoft” pellet guns.
He added they were curing and using profanity.
The Mormon teenagers were playing Frisbee.
According to the Lieutenant the Mormon victims walked over to the pool to ask the kids to quiet down and clean up their language.
The kids responded by asking if the victims were Mormon, the victims said “yes”.
That’s when police say the junior high-school aged children began to fire pellets at the Mormons, taunt them, and spoke Mormon slurs.
Shortly after this a truck pulls up with some high school-aged teenagers.
We now know two of those are Mesquite High School football players.
Police believe one is the older brother of one of the younger kids in the pool and are investigating if he thought he was coming to the defense of his younger brother.
Due to the time span between the Mormon question and the attack Police say they still are not certain this was a hate crime.
They say it was fifteen minutes from the time the kids asked the question to the time the attack started.
http://www.abc15.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=adf1f80f-fdd2-4c5a-98dc-f637a7dee6b2
Thought this was interesting.