Posted on 12/22/2009 4:57:41 PM PST by SkyPilot
ENGLEWOOD, N.J. (CBS) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1 David Muneton, an eighth grade honor student, needed reconstructive facial surgery after being savagely beaten by a gang of 11 students on Dec. 18, 2009, in Engelwood, N.J.
David Muneton, an eighth grade honor student, needed reconstructive facial surgery after being savagely beaten by a gang of 11 students on Dec. 18, 2009, in Engelwood, N.J.
Police said as many as 11 students beat up the eighth-grader leaving him severely injured, and he may even lose his sight.
CBS 2 HD spoke with some of his friends about what led to the brutal attack.
The incident near a school soccer field was so violent that 13-year-old David Muneton needed reconstructive surgery to his face to correct several broken bones.
His friends at the Janis Dismus Middle School in Englewood are stunned.
"It's so hard. … I'm his best friend," Denise Melendez said before breaking down in tears.
Police have arrested seven students from both the middle school and high school, charging them with aggravated assault. The youngest one is just 12 years old.
Investigators said the teenagers jumped Muneton on Friday as he walked home from school to get back at him for an earlier incident during which the eighth-grader accidentally hit a girl with a basketball.
The superintendent said the girl, who has also been charged, led the boys to Muneton, saying "He's the one."
"We do know that after the girl made the comment one of the people, the boys, who was with him immediately punched him," Superintendent Dr. Richard Segall said.
Students at the middle school have made a get well card for the 13-year-old -- all of them outraged over what happened.
"He really didn't deserve to get beat up like that because he really didn't do anything and it wasn't intentional that he hit her with a ball," student Michael Bailey said.
"If I was there Ii would have told someone," student Emanuel Doughtery added.
"I wrote I hope he gets better soon," said student Katherine Saldarriga.
Muneton is recovering at Englewood Hospital. His brother told CBS 2 HD his condition is improving. The assistant principal said the youngster is a model student.
"He is a wonderful young man, actually one of our students who made the honor roll this quarter," Daniella Bailey said.
As these kids try to make sense of what happened all seven students arrested have been suspended. This coming as police was looking to charge four more teenagers.
Three of the students charged remain at the juvenile detention center in Paramus, while the rest have been released to their parents -- two of them required to wear ankle bracelets.
sorry but there's a real big difference. Back in your grandfather's and my day, retribution and retaliation was up to the individual, today the retaliator gets the sentence........kinda like hockey. /sarc
Basic ass kickings in your grandfather's day solved a lot of potential future problems.......
Those comments were amazing.
And I wouldn’t automatically assume that David Muneton is “hispanic” any more than I’m “Irish.”
He was just a lone white kid, to the gang of barbarians that nearly killed him.
If there were real men in the community of Englewood, this crime would not have happened.
yes, they are...
I googled around a bit and he seems to have a cousin with a Hispanic name. The article itself seemed to be missing, however. I think he’s at least part Hispanic, maybe.
But obviously the significant thing to the perps is that he’s not black and they think it’s time to assert a little black power.
Hispanic, Chinese, Korean, white, it’s all the same. Korean shop keepers were on the receiving end of some of the black riots in the inner cities last time that happened.
they can do anything they want since control of america is in the hands of, well you know.
But in his case it was simple bullying by five kids - he told me stories about it ... he got beat up quite often simply because he was a little skinny kid ...
For all the folks who have kids out there, teach your kids if they get into something like this gang assault, protect the face and head as much as possible. It is common for the thugs to circle around and kick dozens of times or take running leaps to land straight down with both feet on the victim.
This poor kid probably did not initially receive those injuries from the typical cowardly sucker punch that almost always precludes the “beatdown”.
A common tactic for these thugs is to decide one will verbally intimidate the victim to draw his attention then a second or third will hit the victim from the rear or flank with a haymaker, with full body motion and many times with the crook of the arm or forearm making the initial contact. This almost always knocks the unsuspecting victim down. Then like a pack of hyenas they descend on the victim.
The best defense against this is not to be caught in it. You can’t fight ten people in hand to hand.
Teach your kids not to ignore that little voice telling them a group is going to be trouble. We as humans subconsciously pick up on little cues that our adversaries give us but somehow we don’t compute it properly or ignore it because of societal programming. If a group of assailants is gathering to do something to you, a sure fire way to determine their intent is to do an immediate about face. If they really want you, they will come.
Folks have seriously about had enough.
The first names of the attackers might reveal a lot!
How about the school demographics...
Janis E. Dismus Middle School Student Diversity * Students by Ethnicity (2007) * Black 61 % * Hispanic 34 % * Asian 2 % * White 2 % * American Indian/Alaskan Native
The comments certainly are ugly.
Some are very ugly.
That will do it!
President Obama, when are you going to declaim that the assailants "acted stupidly"?
I *hope* President "black and white and RED all over" isn't trying to stoke racial tensions.
Why? Because there are already too many with the hispanics fighting with the blacks, without adding any more tensions: we need to seek *REAL* peace.
Cheers!
What’s appalling is that stories like this don’t shock many people anymore. The American people need to find a way to stop using the public schools system.
Things like this happened where I grw up 50 years ago...but not this much damage was ever done.....
If it’s gang related, why are they in school?
Obama as Rosie the Riveter. That is rich.
Did they jump up and down on his face after he had been rendered unconscious?
Thanks for the advice - copied to email to be read to my kids later. I’ve never heard of this animal behaviour in my neck of the woods - but it is probably coming.
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