Two charged in Wal-Mart beating (Christmas Eve attack follow-up)

Sun-Times ^ | December 27, 2003 | DAVE NEWBART AND SHAMUS TOOMEY Staff Reporters

[Chi-townChief]

Shortly after Lennell Greer was charged Friday with beating two people at a Wal-Mart store in Forest Park on Christmas Eve, Greer's wife lashed out at the victims, saying her husband simply was protecting their daughter.

"A father's love is his crime,'' said the wife, who identified herself as "Mrs. Lennell Greer.'' "What would any man do when a grown man starts something with his 11-year-old, 70-pound daughter?''

One of the victims, a 28-year-old Chicago woman, called that claim "outrageous," saying she and a friend posed no threat but were beat unmercifully with an aluminum baseball bat while a crowd cheered their attackers on.

Earlier Friday, prosecutors charged Greer, 41, of Broadview, and a 15-year-old boy with the attack on Matthew Baures, 22, of Berwyn, and the woman. Both were charged with two felony counts of aggravated battery. Police said the boy struck the victims with the bat, and Greer also hit them.

The beating came after the victims and two female customers exchanged words in the store's check-out line, police said. After leaving, Baures and his friend, who asked that her name not be used, were attacked in the parking lot.

In an interview Friday night at Greer's house, his wife said the initial confrontation was between her daughter, herself and two others in line. Her daughter, she explained, had been sick, and wasn't able to buy Christmas presents until the last minute, including one for her dad, who was waiting in the car.

"I think it's not right because I'm a little girl going Christmas shopping for my father,'' the girl said.

The Greers said they were waiting in two separate lines when the dispute with Baures started. The alleged victims started the confrontation, they said.

Mrs. Greer declined to comment on what happened in the parking lot but said she believes a store video surveillance tape will exonerate her husband and the 15-year-old. She declined to identify the teenager but said he was not her son.

Mrs. Greer noted her husband was picked up by police on Christmas, and her daughter wasn't able to give him his gift.

"From her first Christmas she has never been separated from her father. Never,'' she said. "Now he's incarcerated. Is that what Santa has to bring?''

Lennell Greer remained in a police lock-up Friday pending a bond hearing today.

For his part, Baures said his aches from his injuries -- he was struck in the face, back and ribs -- had improved, but he still hoped to visit a doctor because he was having trouble walking.

His friend said she broke her right pinkie finger when she grabbed an attacker's crotch. She also suffered bruises on her body and welts on her head. She sought care at a hospital and still suffered headaches Friday.

While Baures and the woman believe there were four or five attackers, Forest Park Police Chief Jim Ryan said police arrested the "two major aggressors."

Wal-Mart officials said they were investigating the incident and the actions of their security staff.

[CovenBuster]

Heheheh. Anybody wanna make a guess as to ethnic origins here?

Who cares? And why the heck does it matter? A crime is a crime, for pity's sake.

[Ciexyz]

So much for peace on earth, good will to men (er, humankind).

[SAMWolf]

"dissing" is a serious offense, they had to be taught a lesson. </ sarcasm>

[Nov3]

BOW YOUR HEAD

[lowbridge]

bump

[robertpaulsen]

Well, it took 30 minutes to check out, so that's plenty of time for words to be exchanged.

[10mm]

Heheheh. Anybody wanna make a guess as to ethnic origins here?
Who cares? And why the heck does it matter? A crime is a crime, for pity's sake.

Because if it weren't for minority criminals, we'd have a lower crime rate than Switzerland.

[MediaMole]

"I think it's not right because I'm a little girl going Christmas shopping for my father,'' the girl said.

Can you say "coached response?" Thank you Edie Haskell.

Nothing in either story remotely justifies beating the guy with a baseball bat. Nothing. Even if he cut in line and used racial epithets, it doesn't justify beating the guy with a bat.

[ozzymandus]

Yeah, that guy was just begging for a gang of thugs to beat him and his girlfriend with baseball bats wasn't he? He should have just handed over his wallet and car keys and let the thugs rape his girl, right?

[Zechariah11]

(BTW, I always found Louisville Slugger to be best for a$$-whippings....jus kiddin) ROFL!

[FITZ]

He should have just handed over his wallet and car keys and let the thugs rape his girl, right?

Except that's not what happened or was every going to happen --- they weren't beating him up for his wallet or car keys or to rape his girlfriend. He lost his cool over a little girl making mean faces at him. I almost feel like beating him up myself --- a grown man who can't handle it when a little girl makes faces at him in a store line. She was only 11 --- you don't think he couldn't have just looked the other way?

[cupcakes]

No, a father (and some low life 15 year old) changing what was a verbal exchange into a violent exchange is the crime.
__________

Yup, exactly what I was saying on the original thread. The woman chose to escalate it instead of leaving the store and going on her way. And her scumbag husband chose to break his daughter's heart by beating two people silly with a baseball bat. Had she kept her mouth in check and he kept his anger in check, they could have forgotten about this and had a lovely Christmas with the daughter giving daddy her gift.
___________

Typical case of the villains-- this woman and her miscreant husband-- protraying themselves as victims.
_____________

Yup, I smell a family of liberal, I am the victim, minority(race supposedly determined in the original thread), what says you?

_______________________

I wonder how long it will take for them to say its all a racist plot against them and call up Jessie racebaiter jackson. (that is if they haven't already)
_________

Probably about as long as it took the mother to decide she wasn't going to take that "diss" from old whitie(ie they probably are alredy on the line).

[cupcakes]

Still no excuse for the beating, but how something is said can change a standard exchange into violence. I believe that's the case he

______________

I'd buy that if the fight escalated at that point into violence, but the Greers LEFT the store and waited for these people outside. They had plenty of time to let the anger settle and move on, but they made a predetermined move that they were going to escalate this incident once the people with them in line came out. This, imo, is what gives the Greers no credibility at all. Had the violence occured at the time of the exchange, I could see how people got heated to that point, but to walk your cart outside and instigate your male relatives to get bats to confront the person you had a VERBAL confrontation with is ridiculous and unacceptable. These were a bunch of hotheads who wanted to have the last "word" imo.

[cupcakes]

Agreed! Had my Christmas Eve nightmare experience on the road from a very aggresive female driver.

[SteelTrap]

Listen up people...the true story that is not being reported here is that this was not related to Christmas at all! These people were partaking in the long-standing traditions of Festivus. (similar to the communist version of Festivus invented in 1966 by a Marxist college professor at NYU)

1. The baseball bat was really the Festivus pole
(undecorated because tinsel is distracting)

2. The confrontational discourse was simply the Airing of Grievances

3. The ensuing horseplay was merely the revelers trying to pin

the head of the household in honor of the Festivus "Feats of Strength".

"Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way." "What happened to the doll?" "It was destroyed. But out of that a new holiday was born... A Festivus for the rest of us!" - Frank Costanza and Kramer, in "The Strike"

[LisaMalia]

His friend said she broke her right pinkie finger when she grabbed an attacker's crotch

Damn! ROTFLMAO

[cupcakes]

I was saying yesterday how much I loved our Walmart, but I can understand you all that have crappy ones. I've been in a few like that and won't shop them either. I won't shop in ours after 7pm either. Seems like that is when every low life is shopping. Ours is a great Walmart if you shop early in the day. Nothing but stay at home mother that time of day shopping while the kiddos are at school or the retired and I've even ran into a few homeschoolers I know. Rarely do you run into the kind of ghetto trash(black or white) that early in the day(still sleeping I suspect).

[LisaMalia]

I just wish we had a Meiers (sp) here in town.