Post by anticonscience on Jun 21, 2007 17:05:52 GMT -5
I read this in USA Today on my lunch break today and all I can say is that I'm not at all shocked that this happened in Texas
Mob kills man after car strikes child at Texas fest
By Alan Gomez, USA TODAY
AUSTIN, Texas — Police in Austin said Wednesday they are trying to track down several people who beat a man to death after the car he was riding in struck a 3-year-old in a crowded parking lot.
David Rivas Morales, 40, was being driven home from work by a friend Monday when the car pulled into a parking lot at the same time that hundreds of people were walking to their cars following a Juneteenth celebration at a nearby park. The celebration commemorates the abolition of slavery.
The car hit a child, and Morales' friend stopped the car and got out to check on the child, Austin Police Commander Harold Piatt said. When he did, a mob attacked him. Morales jumped out to help his friend and was attacked by as many as 20 people, Piatt said.
The attack happened close to Morales' home. Relatives of Morales came running out and said he was lying on the pavement battered and choking on blood. Morales was pronounced dead shortly after he arrived at a hospital.
"I'm just hoping they catch all the people who did this," said his sister Margaret Morales, 30. "I want them to feel the same pain they caused my brother."
Piatt said the child was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The driver escaped the mob and is cooperating with investigators, who are not releasing his name, Piatt said.
John Morales, the victim's brother, said doctors told him and his family that they couldn't control the bleeding in his brother's brain and that his heart kept stopping in the emergency room.
"They said he hit his head on the concrete," Margaret Morales said. "I can't even begin to think why this happened."
Family members described Morales, who was born and raised in Austin with his two sisters and one brother, as a caring, hard-working man who always looked out for others. He was unmarried and recently had started work as a house painter.
His sister Margaret said she wasn't surprised that her brother put himself in the middle of a mob to save a friend.
"He was always the kind of person who would help others before himself," she said. "That's just the kind of man he was. He was the best brother a person could have. The best uncle. The best friend. Everything. And now, all that's taken away."
Earl White, a family friend who lives nearby, said Morales enjoyed sitting on the porch and watching children in the neighborhood play in the parking lot.
"He was a good dude," said White, 29.
No arrests had been made late Wednesday, and Austin police were continuing to interview witnesses.
The police have offered a $1,000 reward for anyone with information about the beating.
The city-sponsored Juneteenth celebration featured a parade, a motorcycle show, music, food and events for children. It marks the day Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 to share news of the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared slaves to be free two years earlier on Jan. 1, 1863.
Contributing: The Associated Press
www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-06-20-crash-assault_N.htm
Mob kills man after car strikes child at Texas fest
By Alan Gomez, USA TODAY
AUSTIN, Texas — Police in Austin said Wednesday they are trying to track down several people who beat a man to death after the car he was riding in struck a 3-year-old in a crowded parking lot.
David Rivas Morales, 40, was being driven home from work by a friend Monday when the car pulled into a parking lot at the same time that hundreds of people were walking to their cars following a Juneteenth celebration at a nearby park. The celebration commemorates the abolition of slavery.
The car hit a child, and Morales' friend stopped the car and got out to check on the child, Austin Police Commander Harold Piatt said. When he did, a mob attacked him. Morales jumped out to help his friend and was attacked by as many as 20 people, Piatt said.
The attack happened close to Morales' home. Relatives of Morales came running out and said he was lying on the pavement battered and choking on blood. Morales was pronounced dead shortly after he arrived at a hospital.
"I'm just hoping they catch all the people who did this," said his sister Margaret Morales, 30. "I want them to feel the same pain they caused my brother."
Piatt said the child was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The driver escaped the mob and is cooperating with investigators, who are not releasing his name, Piatt said.
John Morales, the victim's brother, said doctors told him and his family that they couldn't control the bleeding in his brother's brain and that his heart kept stopping in the emergency room.
"They said he hit his head on the concrete," Margaret Morales said. "I can't even begin to think why this happened."
Family members described Morales, who was born and raised in Austin with his two sisters and one brother, as a caring, hard-working man who always looked out for others. He was unmarried and recently had started work as a house painter.
His sister Margaret said she wasn't surprised that her brother put himself in the middle of a mob to save a friend.
"He was always the kind of person who would help others before himself," she said. "That's just the kind of man he was. He was the best brother a person could have. The best uncle. The best friend. Everything. And now, all that's taken away."
Earl White, a family friend who lives nearby, said Morales enjoyed sitting on the porch and watching children in the neighborhood play in the parking lot.
"He was a good dude," said White, 29.
No arrests had been made late Wednesday, and Austin police were continuing to interview witnesses.
The police have offered a $1,000 reward for anyone with information about the beating.
The city-sponsored Juneteenth celebration featured a parade, a motorcycle show, music, food and events for children. It marks the day Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 to share news of the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared slaves to be free two years earlier on Jan. 1, 1863.
Contributing: The Associated Press
www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-06-20-crash-assault_N.htm
