Motorist beaten and critically injured
A motorist who was dragged from his car in Milwaukee, US, and severely beaten, apparently by a mob of young people, was well enough to talk to officers, and several other people also were questioned, police said Wednesday.
The 50-year-old man, Samuel McClain, was taken to hospital in critical condition with head trauma after the beating on Monday night.
Officers were able to interview him last night, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said at a briefing.
“He’s sitting up and talking,” Schwartz said. She declined to give details on what he said.
While he remained in critical condition today, his condition was stabilising, a hospital spokeswoman said.
City officials asked for the public’s help in finding the assailants, believed to be between 16 and 23 years old. It was the latest in a string of mob beatings in Milwaukee since 2002.
The young people surrounded the man’s vehicle after he honked at them because they were in the middle of the street, police said.
“It’s Christmas week. A guy’s trying to drive down the street. What’s the problem here?” said Mayor Tom Barrett.
Police would not say how many people detectives were questioning, and they weren’t sure if any of them were directly involved in the beating, Schwartz said.
“We’re questioning anybody we could find to bring in,” she said.
Several mob beatings have taken place in Milwaukee’s inner city in recent years. In 2002, more than a dozen people, mostly boys, chased a man through the streets and beat him to death with shovel handles, rakes and tree limbs.
A man with schizophrenia died after being beaten and robbed by a group in July 2004. Six teens were charged; one was convicted, charges against four were dropped and one is awaiting trial.
Four days after that attack, a 14-year-old boy was kicked, punched and hit on the head with a piece of lumber after he exchanged words with a girl.
He was in a coma for two weeks. Also that summer, four brothers were beaten by a group armed with bats, bottles, sticks and socks stuffed with canned food.
