LONG BEACH: Frenzied Crowd of 30-40 Blacks Savagely Beat 3 White Girls

Victims of attack share their story
Crime: 10 arrested after attack on Halloween; $2,500 reward offered for
information about other suspects still at large.

By Tracy Manzer, Staff writer

LONG BEACH - Several suspects including at least three men who savagely
beat three young women in a horrific hate crime attack Halloween night
remained at large Friday.

The three victims - two of whom are 19 and the third 21 - agreed to sit
down with a Press-Telegram reporter and discuss the painful attack in
the hope that someone who knows the culprits will turn them in to
police.

The young women asked to be identified by only their first names of
Laura, Michelle and Lauren because they and their families fear for
their safety. The assault, they said, was so savage they thank God they
are alive.

"A pack of hyenas"

The victims - along with throngs of other people - had gone to the 3800
block of Linden Avenue around 9:30 p.m. for a popular Halloween block
party. As they walked up to an elaborate haunted house, they said, a
group of about a dozen males began taunting them.

"They asked us, `Are you down with it?,' we had no idea what that meant
so we didn't say anything and just walked by them up to the haunted
house," said Laura, "They were grabbing their crotches - we didn't know
if it was a gang thing or what."

After making their way through a maze at the house, thethree girls said
they were back in the same spot where they were confronted and next to
the same guys, who again taunted them. Still saying nothing, the three
victims tried to walk away but were pelted with lemons and small
pumpkins that split the seams on their costumes and left lumps and
bruises on their bodies.

The taunts and jeers grew more aggressive, the victims recalled, as did
the size of the crowd. Now females joined in, and everyone began saying
"We hate white people, f--- whites!"

At this point, the girls began to run, but the pack of assailants ran
ahead of them and kept them surrounded.

"It was like animals, like a pack of hyenas," Michelle said.

She was trying to call 911 on her cell phone when the taunts began, but
kept getting busy signals. She tried three times to call, she said, but
never got through to an operator.

The suspects also began to gradually separate the girls, first by
grabbing Laura by her long hair and yanking her backward.

She said she tried to fight off a group of girls who surrounded her and
were clawing and hitting her, but then a man came up and slammed her in
the head with a skateboard, knocking her unconscious.

"One of the witnesses told the police that he saw my legs go straight
up in the air and I hit the ground face first," she said, accounting
for the bumps and bruises on her forehead and around her nose and eyes.


Her friends watched, horrified as the man raised the skateboard over
his head and slammed her again as she lay on the ground. Others in the
pack also began to hit and kick her motionless body.

Fearing their friend would be killed, the other two girls rushed to her
aid.

Saved by a Samaritan

Lauren was the first at Laura's side, and a group of people immediately
jumped on her and began punching her in the face and back of the head
simultaneously. Some kicked her in the back of knees, causing her legs
to buckle. At one point, when they got her cell phone away from her,
Lauren said she knelt down to try and retrieve the phone.

"Once I knelt down, there was too much of a force on top of me to get
back up," she said. "They were pounding on my back, on my head. ...
They were kicking at the ball that was me."

Lauren suffered 12 fractures in her face, including four to her eye
socket, three to her nose and three to her cheek.

Doctors don't yet know if she will regain all of her eyesight. Until
the swelling goes down, they won't know if she'll require surgery to
repair the many broken bones.

Forced to drop her college photography classes this semester because
she cannot see well enough to use the camera, Lauren also can't blow
her nose or sleep lying down. The pressure, doctors told her, could
cause any of the fractured bones to shift, which could lead to her eye
becoming detached from the shattered socket.

Michelle said she saw the group drag Lauren down as she rushed up and
knocked the man with the skateboard off Laura. But then he then turned
on her, punching her in both sides of her face and in the ribs.

Her face, like Lauren's and Laura's, is bruised and swollen. The lining
that surrounds her lungs is also bruised.

As the man beat on Michelle, Laura regained consciousness and tried to
pull him off her friend. But others in the pack immediately began to
hammer at her again, she said.

She, like Lauren, suffered a concussion as well as multiple contusions.
The lumps and marks on the back of her head and her back show where she
was stomped, kicked and punched as she lay on the ground.

In all, the attack lasted about 10 minutes, and it ended only when a
Good Samaritan driving by the melee stopped and physically blocked the
battered girls bodies while yanking the assailants off the victims.

Maybe because he was also black, or because he was so tall and strong,
the group broke up and scattered to several cars and fled, the victims
said.

"If it wasn't for that guy, honestly, I don't think these two would be
here today," Michelle said.

Shortly after the attack, police arrested 10 juveniles on a charge of
felony hate crimes, including counts for assault with a deadly weapon,
battery and robbery.

Some of the 10 youths - nine girls and one boy ranging in age from 12
to 17 - were found wearing the victim's earrings - which were ripped
from their flesh - and had Lauren's cell phone.

Others still at large

The victims were able to identify all 10 but said there are several
others who participated who remain at large. They estimated that at
least 25 people took part in the attack, while witnesses who live on
the block told police the crowd looked to have between 30 and 40
people.

"I heard these thumping sounds and all these people yelling "F---
whites, f--- whites!" said one resident who witnessed the attack.

She spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing the assailants might
return to her neighborhood and attack her and other witnesses.

"I have such mixed feelings," she added. "I'm so ashamed that I didn't
try to run out there and stop them, but it was terrifying."

"I've never seen anything like that in my life," she added. "I can't
even describe it. I'm still terrified."

She said she called 911, along with several of her neighbors, and
screamed frantically for help as a dispatcher tried to calm her down.
North Division officers found the 10 youths not far from the scene of
the crime in a grocery store parking lot.

One girl's mother said she doesn't blame witnesses who were too
frightened to intervene.

And she and the other mothers said over and over how grateful they are
to the man who saved their daughters' lives.

"I can't imagine," Barbara said, her eyes shining with tears. "I can't
imagine anyone doing that to another human being, or even an animal."

Now the mothers are working with police and imploring the district
attorney's office to prosecute the youths as adults and to seek the
harshest sentences possible. They have raised $2,500 for a reward fund
so far, and are taking more donations in the hope it will spur someone
to turn those responsible in to authorities.

Most of all, the girls and their mothers want the three men - who
appeared to be in their early 20s - to be arrested.

A team of detectives have been assigned to the case, and the police
response has the victims and their families confident that the men will
soon be found.

Anyone with information about the suspects or the incident is urged to
call police at the Youth Services Division, at (562) 570-1426, or
Violent Crimes Division, at (562) 570-7250.

"Anything anyone can do, please help," said one of the mothers. "These
people ... they don't belong in society."

Tracy Manzer can be reached at or (562)
499-1261.