A group or perhaps even an organized gang of Somali men from St Paul and Minneapolis have been filming assaults they made against people unknown to them. The gang assaulted passersby, runners, bicyclists and even children, apparently solely for the purpose of filming the assaults.
Once they had accumulated a sufficient number of assaults on film, they then made a video out of the film and posted it on YouTube. They even filmed themselves, identifying themselves in the process and bragged that more videos were to come.
St Paul police have already identified all of the gang's members, but now they need the victims to come forward to press charges in order to prosecute any of the Somali perpetrators. At this point none of the victims are known to the police.
The first video is the local FOX affiliate's report of the assaults:
The second video is the actual video posted on YouTube by the Somali gang:
The quality of the group's film making leaves much to be desired.
16-year-old Derrion Albert was a Chicago honors student at Christian Fenger Academy High School on Chicago's notorious South Side who was beaten to death Thursday, September 24th, during a gang fight only three blocks from school.
Derrion was not a gang banger, but it is understandable why he was mistaken for one because he was wearing clothes similar to many of the gang members. Although none of the gang members were armed with guns or knives, some were fighting with long boards, which appears to be the weapon that took young Derrion's life that fateful Thursday afternoon.
In the following raw uncut video of the fight one young teen in a red jacket can be seen swinging an especially long 2x4 piece of lumber hitting Darrion square in the head. A loud crack can be heard as the plank strikes Derrion's skull, and he then falls to the ground immediately.
Once he is on the ground other teens begin punching and kicking Derrion, while another youth strikes him with another wooden post. Derrion's mother is quoted by WFLD TV, the local FOX affiliate in Chicago, as saying he was "trying to help another student and kind of got mixed in with the crowd of the fight and he was hit.”
Other students and workers from nearby Agape Community Center intervene on Derrion's behalf removing him from the scene of the fight, but he had already suffered sufficient blows to end his life.
The following video is raw uncut footage taken by a student's cell phone and is embedded from WFLD TV. Be forewarned that the footage is violent and graphic:
** Police have arrested three young men and one juvenile thus far for Derrion's murder. 18-year-old Eugene Bailey, allegedly the teen who delivered the knock-out blow to Derrion's head with the long 2x4, has been denied bail and currently remains in jail.
In addition, three other teens, Silvonus Shannon, 19, Eugene Riley, 18, and Eric Carson, 16, are also being held without bail for their alleged roles in the fight. It is not clear at this time whether Carson will be tried as an adult or as a juvenile.
A spokesperson for the Cook County prosecutor's office said that the melee stemmed from a shooting earlier in the day between two groups of students from different neighborhoods. The melee broke out after classes ended for the day.
Funeral services were held Saturday morning for Derrion at Greater Mount Hebron Church on Chicago's South Side.
