Posted on 12/27/2017 1:23:19 PM PST by Simon Green
Four Ohio teens face murder charges after allegedly throwing a sandbag from a highway overpass. The bag smashed through the windshield of a car that Marquise Byrd, 22, was riding in last week on Interstate 75 in Toledo. Byrd died from severe head injuries on Friday.
Three of the boys charged are 14 years old, and the other is 13. They had already been charged with felonious assault, reports CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan.
Around 10 p.m. last Tuesday, a woman was driving with her friend, Byrd, under an overpass when something came crashing through the passenger-side windshield. She pulled over and called 911.
"I don't know what happened! My friend, I don't know what happened, he's not moving!" she told the dispatcher. "Something hit my car. And hit my friend. And he is not moving!"
"OK, you don't know what hit him?" the dispatcher asked.
"No, my windshield is, like, smashed up. He is laid out on my seat. I think the windshield might have smacked his head," the distressed woman responded.
Police arrested four juveniles after seeing them leave the area near the overpass. They're accused of throwing objects off the interstate bridge. It was a sandbag that broke the windshield and hit Byrd in the passenger seat. He leaves behind a 2-year-old son and was reportedly engaged to be married.
The arrests come nearly two months after a similar incident near Flint, Michigan. Five teens there are facing charges of second degree murder after throwing rocks off an overpass, hitting a vehicle and killing 32-year-old Kenneth White.
The four Ohio teens are awaiting confirmation of their next court date.
"It's not fun and games. I mean, people are losing their lives," Warren police commissioner Bill Dwyer said. "And the consequences for these kids that think it's fun and games and a prank, they're gonna go to prison."
Prosecutors say given the ages of the boys, their case will likely remain in juvenile court. In addition to the murder charges, the boys are facing charges of felony vehicular vandalism.
Back in the early 80s near Jackson, MS, 4 of em tossed a brick off an interstate overpass. It hit my driver’s side mirror breaking it completely off. I slammed on the brakes and pulled a u-turn onto the entrance ramp (going the wrong way but nothing coming down it) that was coming down off that overpass and drove right up onto the overpass where they were. They were hightailing it down thru the woods as fast as they could go. I emptied two mags of .45 thru a Combat Commander at em but I never hit em. I guess I needed more range time back then.
hANG EM ALL
I come here and defend adults and kids, if I thing the penalty is too harsh. It needs to be obviously too harsh though.
Id call this murder one.
It was perfectly obvious someone would die if this hit just right.
I dont have any sympathy four the four at all.
For the dead man, what a rotten thing to happen. Terrible and unnecessary...
When my Dad was in his 70’s, a few years ago - someone dropped a rock on his windshield - ironically from a bridge on MLK Boulevard.
I wasn’t there, but my brother was - it smashed the windshield but it didn’t shatter. Dad handled it well and made it to the side of the road without problem.
Convict and execute them. No sense on life or long prison sentence as they will too likely commit violent crimes again in the future.
I sure hope waiting for next court date means in jail.
Good. Kids need to realize that this is not a joke.
Toss them over.
“Ive lived in both Toledo and Flint.”
One time I had my rental car windshield cobbed on and hood pounded in beautiful downtown Toledo.
No blood trails or drag marks?
“Life in prison. Period.”
Caned to death.
“I emptied two mags of .45 thru a Combat Commander at em but I never hit em.”
Much, much more of this needs to happen.
” I guess I needed more range time back then”
Too bad you didn’t have a 45-110 and did a Quigley on the sons of bitches.
“....No blood trails or drag marks?....”
None. And not because I wasn’t trying. These little POSs just tried to kill me. And I was really trying very hard to kill em back. In hindsight, I suspect they never tried that stunt again.
Every overpass on an Interstate;that includes I75. It became the law after several incidents like this, one person was killed and another was severely injured.
The fences have been up for a good ten years.
“I emptied two mags of .45 thru a Combat Commander at em but I never hit em.”
If you’re serious, you are my absolute Hero.
This happened to us way back in the mid-1970s. Coming home from fireworks downtown, as we went under an overpass, my dad saw a white bag of flour dropped right in our path. I’ll give the old man credit; he instantly knew it was an aiming shot and punched the gas. The concrete block wound up hitting the roof of his Mercury about six inches from the top of the windshield on the driver’s side. Had he not hit the gas...
Anyone doing this needs to go to prison for a long time. I have no sympathy for them.
a few years ago some #@$%@#$ were throwing bricks and big rocks off an over pass...
one went through the front windscreen between and missing the parents and hit the little baby in his car seat in the back seat and killed him out right...
no penalty can be too much ...
Demetrius is greek I think
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