Two teens are facing charges after allegedly beating and severely injuring a Maryland man last week, WJZ reports. Authorities are expecting to make more arrests in the incident that left 61-year-old Richard Fletcher of Dundalk in Baltimore County with broken eye sockets, a broken nose, broken ribs and a brain bleed, the news station notes.
Antoine Lawson, 17, has been charged as an adult with attempted murder, while an unidentified 15-year-old girl is being charged with assault.
“He was brutally attacked,” Baltimore Police County Cpl. John Wachter told the news station.
Cellphone footage captured the incident, during which the group of teens surrounded Fletcher and repeatedly kicked and hit him until he fell to the ground. Fletcher has since been discharged from the hospital but is still recovering from his injuries.
According to the news station, the incident began when Fletcher saw two girls fighting on top of his car. He went outside to ask them to stop, and then a group of teens turned on him.
“He wasn’t trying to intervene in their disagreement. He just wanted them to stop fighting and move away from his car,” Wachter said.
Neighbors identified the teens as students from Baltimore Community High School, which is near the location of the attack.
“The community in all, we’re really disgusted with the actions of the students,” Georgia Bartrum of the Harbor View Neighborhood Association told WJZ.
Community members are holding multiple fundraisers to try to help with Fletcher’s medical care and have raised more than $7,000 on a GoFundMe page alone so far, according to the station.
Read more at WJZ.