It says a lot about the parents, that they moved to West Oceanview because it "seemed like a nice place to live". When I was in the Navy I delivered pizza's for Papa John's in this area, and we didn't deliver to Ocean View after 10pm.
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/p...aten-by-blacks
Norfolk Beating Caught on Tape
Filed by Katie Collett
A violent beating in Norfolk is caught on tape. The 13 year-old victim and his family believe the attack could have been racially motivated.
The victim in this case is a 13 year-old white boy, Damien O’Rourke. The group who attacked him is made up of all African American teenagers. Damien and his family believe the teens may have picked the fight because Damien is white.
“I was going to play football with my friends. The next thing I know when I got there, there was like, seven black kids who said they were going to beat me up and they started beating me up,” says Damien.
Damien and his family say the violent fight was unprovoked.
“They were kicking me and punching me in the face. They weren’t aiming for nothing except my face.”
Damien and his family just moved to the area thinking it’d be a nice place to live.
“We don’t know what we’re going to do now because we can’t even let our kid go outside and play,” says Reesha Price, Damien’s mother.
Reesha says she got the call Saturday afternoon saying Damien was badly beaten just blocks away from their home. When she reached her 13 year-old son, her heart broke. She saw a bloodied and swollen face.
“He was dazed. It makes your stomach hurt. It makes your stomach hurt. There’s no, I mean I was just thanking God his head wasn’t split open.”
Damien says kids at his new school, including one of the kids involved in the fight, treated him badly for a time because he is white. Now his family believes their skin color could have been what led to the first punch being thrown.
“I do kind of think it was racist. I think if he was black he wouldn’t have gotten beat up like that,” says Reesha.
We saw Norfolk police interviewing people in the area of the fight and they said their Gang Unit will get in touch with the family Monday morning. In the meantime, Damien is planning to go to school on Monday.
And this update, also from WAVY TV 10:
UPDATE - Police identify three suspects in taped beating
Sep 24, 2007
Norfolk Police say they’ve identified three of the people seen beating a 13-year-old in a videotape shown to WAVY.com by the victim’s mother.
According to a spokesperson, Investigators from the Gang Squad have identified 3 of the suspects, and are in the process of identifying the other individuals involved.
They say charges will be filed against all of those involved. They also say that the victim, Damien O’Rourke, knew at least one of the assailants. Police said investigators are also trying to determine what circumstances occurred leading up to the assault.
They also said that, contrary to some statements, the assault does not appear to be racially motivated according to information gathered by investigators that we are unable to release.