Three girls, one 12 and two 13, appeared in a DC court Friday and Saturday, charged with murder in the brutal beating death of a disabled 64-year-old man last October.
All three have been charged as juveniles, and one of the three recorded the beating on her cell phone, the clip showing five girls chasing the man, dragging him off a chain link fence as he tried to escape them, then stomping his head into the concrete, according to the Washingon Post. They also pulled his pants down around his ankles, took off his belt, and beat him with it.
When they saw blood pooling around Reggie Brown’s head, the girls laughed. “He’s leaking,” one said.
The three girls, who were arrested on Friday after a lengthy investigation, were part of that group of five, investigators said. They have been charged as juveniles and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Police found Brown’s body at about 1 a.m. on October 17, and an autopsy determined he died from blunt force trauma. A homicide detectives testified during the hearings that Brown was disabled, with mental health issues, had a metal plate in his head and two fingers on each hand.
Homicide Detective Harry Singleton played the cell phone video in court on both days, along with security camera footage that he said shows the events leading to the fatal beating. In that video, an unknown man is seen dragging Brown off Georgia Avenue by the collar. He throws Brown against a wall, and the victim falls to the ground.
Brown gets up and tries to stumble away, but the five girls approached the unknown man and one asks, “Can I fight him?” a witness told police. The man says, “Yes,” and the girls chase Brown into an alley.
The 12-year-old pulled him off the fence, Singleton said, and the others kicked him.
Singleton testified that the girls didn’t know Brown or the unidentified man and that it wasn’t known if the two men knew one another. One of the girls told police that the unidentified man, believed to be in his 20s, threatened to shoot them with a gun he had in his waistband.
Police said the girls had no prior arrests, although all three had long-standing issues with school truancy.
The judges on Friday and Saturday ordered the girls held at the Youth Services Center but dismissed first-degree murder charges against them. They were charged with second degree murder, and are due back in court on Thursday.
