Pubdate: Sun, 01 Jan 2006 Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) Copyright: 2006 Journal Sentinel Inc. Contact: http://www.jsonline.com/news/editorials/submit.asp Website: http://www.jsonline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/265 Author: David Doege Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) BEATING VICTIM TRIED TO BUY CRACK, COMPLAINT SAYS He Objected After Cash Was Taken, Complaint Against 2 Teens Says A man who was critically beaten by a mob of up to 30 assailants told police the attack occurred after he lost money in an unsuccessful attempt to buy crack, according to a criminal complaint filed Saturday. Samuel McClain said he gave a man $19 "expecting to get crack cocaine in return," then complained to a group milling in the street that he had "just been ripped off by the by the guy who drove away," the complaint says. During an ensuing quarrel, McClain told police, he was suddenly attacked from behind, knocked off his feet, then punched, kicked and stomped into unconsciousness. The complaint charges two teenagers with participating in the attack and is the first time authorities have said McClain was not dragged out of his car and beaten by a mob after honking his horn, as he originally told police. The complaint does not indicate when McClain told the authorities about the attempted crack purchase, but police previously have indicated that he told them he was attacked while still in his car. One of those charged Saturday, Latrail Chie Ball, told police the attack occurred spontaneously after McClain, 50, angered a gathering of young people who had been "playing music, dancing in the street and talking about their New Year resolutions," the complaint says. The first person to call police about the gathering did so before the beating started, complaining at 10:33 p.m. that a crowd was in the street drinking and firing gunshots. Eight minutes later, a series of callers told police that a mob had ganged up on a man and was beating him viciously. When police arrived, they found McClain facedown in the street, his face covered in blood, his eyes swollen shut and his forehead "caved in." The attack has received considerable coverage in the national press. Ball, 17, and Jamael Avery Robinson, 17, were charged in the complaint with first-degree reckless injury. Three juveniles, two 16 and one 14, are being held in secure detention, pending the filing of juvenile delinquency petitions. All three appeared in Children's Court on Thursday and were ordered to remain in custody, pending a hearing Tuesday. The complaint filed Saturday says the investigation is ongoing and that the information provided in the charging document concerns "only one small part of the investigation thus far." "Numerous eyewitnesses have been interviewed and given vivid descriptions" of the way the mob - numbering 15 to 30 young men - set upon McClain, the complaint says. McClain, a father of 12, was treated at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Wauwatosa for several days after the beating. He was no longer hospitalized on Saturday. The two men charged Saturday live in the neighborhood where McClain was beaten. Ball's older brother, Laron Ball, was shot and killed by a police detective after Laron Ball injured a sheriff's deputy in a Milwaukee County courtroom in May 2002. Laron Ball, 20, grabbed the deputy's gun moments after a jury returned a guilty verdict convicting him of murder. Victim familiar to attackers McClain told police he arrived in the neighborhood about 10:30 p.m. Dec. 26, parked his car and walked toward a man seated in a parked vehicle with a broken window, giving him $19 for some crack. After the man drove away, McClain approached the group assembled nearby and complained. According to the complaint: Robinson said he knew McClain as "Sam" because he "often comes to that neighborhood for crack cocaine." Robinson told police that after the man drove away with McClain's $19, McClain stood momentarily in the middle of street "mad because he never got his crack," then approached the group and began yelling. Ball told police that he and two other young men "begged" McClain to leave, "but he wouldn't listen." The man who left with the money returned during the outburst, according to Robinson. When McClain approached him, that man and another man, identified only by nicknames, began throwing punches. After McClain fell to the pavement, others in the crowd turned on the victim, kicking him, punching him, hitting him with bottles, jumping on him from the hoods of parked cars and pelting him with ice balls. Ball said he ran up to McClain and kicked him "one hard time" in the ribs, then left after receiving a cell phone call from his girlfriend who told him to come home. Robinson said, however, that Ball stomped on McClain's back "about six times." Robinson said he eventually joined in the attack, kicking McClain twice in the side, punching him twice and hurling an ice ball at the back of the victim's head "all while Sam lay on the street." Robinson said McClain was "yelling and screaming" throughout the beating, until police sirens sent the assailants running. A police officer who found McClain in the street said McClain couldn't speak when he was turned over, managing only "gurgling." Robinson, who had never before been arrested, apologized for his involvement. He said he simply was "caught up in the beating" and "in the wrong place at the wrong time," the complaint says. Ball said he was sad and wished he could "take back that moment." Ball identified several other assailants after looking overphotographs provided by police. He said there were "plenty more," then added: "You don't have their pictures and I don't know their names." The charges were filed as Milwaukee hip-hop/rhythm and blues radio station WKKV-FM (100.7) sponsored an "Increase the Peace" rally in a drugstore parking lot one block away from the beating scene in the 4700 block of N. 36th St. The rally was staged to point out that street violence was destroying parts of the city, station host Reggie Brown told about 35 people during the event. "These crimes have been very senseless," Brown said. "What are some of the things that we can do about them?" The rally was part of the station's afternoon programming Saturday. During the gathering, leaders from community service organizations, elected officials, local hip-hop artists and onlookers took the microphone from Brown. "We have to do a better job of educating our kids," state Rep. Jason Fields (D-Milwaukee) said. "I used to live in this neighborhood," Sylvester Wilson, 37, told the crowd and listeners. "I used to be in a gang, and let me tell you guys to your face, this gang stuff is no good." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom