On Monday afternoon, Michelle Lee called police in Houston to report that her 13-year-old son, Zavion Parker, had not returned home from school after she received threatening messages on her phone coming from his cellphone.
As officers were collecting information, Zavion was found alive—but his shirt was torn and he had on no shoes.
According to ABC 13, the teenager told police that shortly after he got off the school bus, five teenage boys approached him and forced him into a four-door red truck with flames on the side.
Zavion described the person driving the vehicle as a white man with straight orange hair and a racially charged tattoo on his arm that read, “I hate black people.”
The suspects took Zavion to an abandoned building and assaulted him, taking his jacket, shoes, phone and keys, he said.
The suspects, all of whom were described as having reddish hair, went into another room to allegedly load a gun, and that’s when Zavion said he made his escape, running away as fast as he could.
It was at that point that Camecia Carmouche, who was driving down the street, spotted Zavion running with his torn shirt and no shoes and stopped to help him.
“His face was puffed up. He had scratches. His shirt was ripped. He has no shoes on,” Carmouche recalled.
Carmouche saw the messages that were sent to Lee, and described them to the news station: “We’re going to hang him. You’re going to find him in the morning.”
Zavion’s mom said she won’t feel at peace until the suspects who attacked her son are caught.
“He said the reason why they got him [was] because they said he was black, he deserved to die,” Lee said.