A tween girl was arrested for being part of a child mob who gave a brutal beat down to a Chicago commuter this month.
Tween girl youngest arrested of violent teen mob
The 11-year-old girl was detained and hit with felony charges of aggravated battery and robbery of a senior, after a group of youths brutally assaulted a 63-year-old man on a Chicago train.
Alongside the girl, four other kids and an 18-year-old woman have been apprehended and face charges related to the incident on the Chicago Transit Authority train.
Michael Manning, who was brutally attacked by a pack of eight to ten children, said he was minding his own business after a grueling 12-hour shift and looking forward to going home.
That’s when the kid terrors targeted him as they boarded the train at the LaSalle/Van Buren stop just late at night on July 8.
“I knew right away that this was not going to go well, no matter what I said or did,” he explained to the WFLD-TV. “I stood up, and I’m 6’4” and I guess that was not a good move because I immediately got punched in the back of the head, which sent me forward into the group.
“They were like, ‘Oh, you’re trying to start something with us!’ Then it was like I was literally running through a gauntlet of fists.”
Manning described the attack as “surreal” and admitted he “was just so shocked,” by their actions that he went “numb.”
“They just pounded on me, and I knew I had to get off this car to, like, not die,” he said about the train.
Manning said he got off one stop later, but the group followed him and continued their assault, stealing his debit card, then leaving him beaten on the platform before getting back on the train.
According to photos he shared with the station, Manning’s right ear and cheek were covered in blood, and he also had a black eye.
“I don’t understand how you can have this type of lawlessness and wanton disrespect, disregard for basic humanity,” Manning said about crime rates in Chicago. “And there’s no checks and balances anywhere.”
Reports indicate that a 16-year-old boy was apprehended Monday and charged with felony robbery and felony aggravated battery against a senior.
A 15-year-old female and two males, ages 14 and 16, were arrested the next day and, all three facing the same charges. Tamia Washington, 18, the eldest suspect so far, was caught on Wednesday.
Tween girl murders younger cousin over phone
In another terrible tween incident, a 12-year-old girl allegedly suffocated her cousin during an argument over an iPhone while at their grandmother’s house.
The girl, who turns 13 next week, is accused of using bedding smother eight-year-old Demeria Hollingsworth to death, before cleaning the crime scene and moving her body on Monday.
The victim’s mother, Rayana Smith, wrote on GoFundMe, “I just lost my baby, the most beautiful child of God. The pain I’m feeling is unbearable. I have to now live life without her in this crazy world.”
District Attorney Frederick Agee said that authorities managed to obtain video evidence showing the 12-year-old suffocating the younger girl while she was “sleeping in the top bunk.”
Smith mentioned that the girls were staying with their grandmother in Humboldt, Tennessee, for the summer, and the tragedy occurred after fight over a phone.
“When they told me about that, I should have just gone to get my kid,” she commented to WREG.
But they were having fun for the summer, and I didn’t think she would kill my baby. She did nothing to deserve for her life to be take,” the grieving mother added. “She was only eight years old. She just turned eight in April.”
The 12-year-old has been hit with with a first-degree murder charge, along with a charge for tampering with evidence.
Agee stated that his office would petition Juvenile Judge Mark Johnson to try the child as an adult and transfer the case to Circuit Court.
“I consider this to be one of the most disturbing violent acts committed by either an adult or juvenile that my office has prosecuted,” Agee commented on Facebook.
Agee said if his request goes through, it will allow for a “lengthier sentence, whether that will be through incarceration or supervision with court-ordered conditions.”
If the girl’s trial and sentencing goes through juvenile court, the court’s jurisdiction over her will cease once she turns 19, meaning she would be free from any further detention, supervision, or court-ordered mental health treatment.
