Saturday, August 24, 2024 - A court heard horrific details about how five children allegedly beat a disabled man to death, 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.
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