Take away their guns ... and they'll use their fists

Washington Post Staff Writers
June 11, 2008

4 Pr. George’s Teens Held in Fatal Beating

African Immigrant Kicked Repeatedly, Police Say

Four Prince George’s County youths, ages 14 and 15, have been charged with firstdegree murder after they “laid in wait” for a 56-year-old man, knocked him to the ground and kicked him so viciously that he died two days later, authorities said.

The victim of the May 28 assault, Aboubacar Camara, a West African immigrant, was robbed of his shoes and a pack of Marlboros, police said in announcing the arrests. The suspects, two boys and two girls, were charged as adults and are being held without bond, authorities said.

“It is a heinous crime, and we don’t have the slightest idea why someone would commit such a terrible act,” Prince George’s School Superintendent John E. Deasy said of the attack, which occurred near the playground of Bladensburg Elementary School.

A spokesman for Deasy said the four youths were enrolled in schools in Prince George’s, but he declined to say which ones, citing privacy concerns.

Deasy said the killing “just defies logic and understanding. It’s just horrifying.”

Homicide detectives said they arrested Regina R. Young-Bey and Justin E. McBride, both 15 and residents of an apartment complex in the 5300 block of Quincy Street in Bladensburg; Marcus L. Williams, 14, of the 3400 block of 55th Avenue in Bladensburg; and Calaisha L. Vaughn, 14, of the 5400 block of 56th Place in the Riverdale area.

McBride and Williams are ninthgraders; Vaughn’s grade was unclear.

Court records show that the four have not been assigned attorneys. Relatives of each teen either declined to comment or could not be located.

While being questioned by detectives, the four “provided written confessions,” according to a police affidavit filed in Prince George’s District Court. The affidavit mentions no motive for the attack.

Saliou Diallo, president of the Guinea Community of Greater Washington, said Camara came to the United States from Guinea in 1994 after working administrative jobs at the Guinean embassies in Belgium, Italy and France. Although he studied finance at colleges in Europe, Camara worked in Prince George’s as a laborer for a moving company, Diallo said.

Camara, who died May 30 at Prince George’s Hospital Center, was unmarried and lived with a friend in a Landover apartment complex. He was to appear in court June 5 on a charge related to urinating in public, police said. He had no other criminal record.

“People come here for freedom, and they get killed,” said Diallo, an uncle of Amadou Diallo, who was killed by New York police officers in a controversial 1999 shooting.

The police affidavit says that just after 7:30 p.m. May 28, Camara was in the 4900 block of Annapolis Road, “walking up the paved sidewalk from the area of the playground towards the top of the steps [leading] to the rear of Bladensburg Elementary School.” The four youths saw him and “immediately went to the top of the steps and laid in wait,” the affidavit says.

Vaughn asked Camara if he had a cigarette, and Camara replied that he did not smoke, according to the affidavit. The affidavit says that Young-Bey “stepped up to the victim and bumped him in the shoulder with her shoulder,” knocking him to the ground.

The four kicked Camara again and again, and at least two of them spat on him while “the victim was continuously coughing up blood,” the affidavit says.

Camara suffered extensive injuries to his head, chest and stomach, according to the affidavit.
At least one of the youths is a suspect in two attacks that were similar but targeted Hispanic victims, according to two law enforcement sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. One of the sources said the youths took photographs of Camara that have been viewed by detectives.

Investigators think some or all of the teens were members of a neighborhood crew called the Skull Crushers or the Skull Krusher Crew, according to three law enforcement sources.
Police said they received tips from witnesses. Young-Bey and McBride were arrested June 2. They provided “written confessions to include details of their involvement into the deadly assault,” the affidavit says.

Williams was arrested June 4, and Vaughn was arrested the next day. They also signed “written confessions,” the affidavit says.

Spokesman Henry Tippett said police waited until Monday to announce the arrests because they wanted to be certain that there were no other suspects. The arrests were first reported by WTTG-TV (Channel 5).

“It’s totally outrageous that this happened,” Del. Doyle L. Niemann (D-Prince George’s), who represents the area, said of the slaying.

Niemann, who is also a prosecutor but is not involved in the case, said: “It’s really a comment in some ways on the disintegration of values in our society. . . . We’re going to have to take a serious look at the whole culture we have, a popular media that has glorified this kind of brutality. We’re reaping what we’ve sowed.”

Before moving into the friend’s apartment in Landover about a year ago, Camara lived for about two years in a Landover rooming house. Another resident of the rooming house, Patricia Harris, called him “a very dear friend of mine. We were roommates. He was a very nice person.”
The rooming house is a threestory red brick building in the 6100 block of Landover Road, less then a mile from where the attack occurred.

Camara’s former landlord, Lary Mitchell, said Camara always paid his $150 weekly rent on time. But he said he ordered Camara to move out after police brought him home intoxicated one night.
“It’s very tragic and really totally horrible,” Mitchell said.

Diallo said leaders of the 5,000-member Guinean community in the Washington area hope to raise $6,000 to pay for Camara’s burial.

“We need the parents,” Diallo said, talking about how to stop senseless violence. “Parents does not mean father and mother only. Parents means community. Parents means us.”





death by beating

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