Posted on 07/26/2008 9:49:37 AM PDT by Drew68
(Updated) Mayor John DeStefano, offering new details about a dirt bike-van collision that led to a crowd beating a driver and a 15 year-old boy losing his life, renewed a call to tackle the challenge of disconnected teens.
DeStefano made the remarks at an unrelated City Hall press event in the wake of a Wednesday afternoon incident that has shocked the city.
The incident occurred between 4:30 and 5 p.m. Wednesday. A 15 year-old boy racing a stolen Honda dirt bike up and down Shepard Street ran into the back of a van. A crowd of his friends subsequently beat the driver, badly.
Both the driver and the biker went to Yale-New Haven Hospital as police blocked off Read and Shepard streets around 5 p.m. Wednesday and dealt with a chaotic scene.
The boy, Quinell Payne, died from his injuries at 3:34 a.m. at Yale-New Haven, according to hospital spokesman Mark DAntonio.
The driver, believed to be in his 50s, was also seriously hurt, though not as severely as the boy. (Mayoral spokesman Jessica Mayorga said Thrusday afternoon that the drivers condition was stable. He remained in the hospital. His name wasnt released.)
DeStefano said Thursday that the driver will survive his injuries. He said at Quinel Payne had a history of trouble with the law and was out on juvenile probation. He also said some members of Paynes family have had legal problems, too.
I say that not to characterize the kid as a bad kid, DeStefano said. Theres a group of kids who are disconnected. That poses a challenge to us.
(The mayors spokeswoman released a statement at 4:47 p.m. Thursday that further elaborated on Quinell Payne: Payne, who mostly recently attended Hillhouse High School in New Haven, was well-known to New Haven Police. The City made numerous efforts, over the course of several years, to engage Payne through the services of four separate City agencies: the Board of Education, Youth at Work (where he began a job he later abandoned), the Street Outreach Workers Program and the New Haven Department of Police Services. She also reported that the van drivers name would remain private until further notice for the benefit of the investigation and the individuals safety.)
The mayor was at pains not to have reporters misconstrue his statements. He made it clear that he considers the kids actions and the actions of the crowd that beat the driver unacceptable, unacceptable. He stressed that he was making no excuses for the misbehavior.
Rather, he said the incident underscores a point hes been making often lately that a hard-care group of 200-300 young people in the city appear to be beyond the reach of social programs, that everyone from government to families needs to work together to engage them.
They develop their own set of values and are disconnected from family and society.
Stolen Bike
Mayor DeStefano said Thursday that police initially got a call around 1 p.m. Wednesday about kids taking turns racing around Newhallville on a stolen dirt bike. The cops werent able to track the kids down.
Then at 4:33 p.m. police got the call about the collision. They arrived at the scene by 4:37 p.m., he said.
This neighbor, like a dozen other witnesses interviewed at the scene, declined to be identified.
The driver of the van emerged from his vehicle and looked at the dirt-bike rider sprawled in the street. The van driver was dazed, witnesses said.
A mother and daughter on Shepard watched the scene unfold from a front porch. They said that three teenaged boys who are friends of Quinell set on the driver. They kicked him. They punched him. They stomped him. More kids joined the fray as many as 12, in some witnesses estimation.
For hours thereafter officers interviewed witnesses and gathered evidence.
The woman said she and others watched the events unfold from her porch on Shepard Street. Hes riding up and down the street. Its a hot day, he has nothing do, she said. Drivers run that stop sign all the time, she said, making the street more dangerous.
She and others interrupted their tale to watch a brief report about the incident on the 6 oclock TV news. They were outraged that the report focused on the drivers injuries, not Quinells.
Its sad that they beat the guy up, the woman said, resuming her tale. Youve got to understand, that was his friends. All they see is their friend lying lifeless. They were feeling a kind of rage.
She and two others on the block complained that it took an ambulance at least 15 minutes to arrive. Then they walked by [the boy lying on the ground] to check on the driver.
According to initial unconfirmed reports, the boy had an open skull fracture between his eyes and a shattered femur; the driver suffered severe head injuries from the beating.
and these so called witnesses just stood there and let him get his butt kicked and nearly killed. Nice people.
I suppose it was his fault for simply being in their 'hood'. It's what happens when you start defining your own reality.
Can we guess the race?
If they were so concerned about their friend, why did they not tend to him instead of beating the driver???????
Amish, I’m sure of it.
This is Connecticut, so they more likely are quakers.
. . . that a hard-care group of 200-300 young people in the city appear to be beyond the reach of social programs, that everyone from government to families needs to work together to engage them.
The way to "engage" these little sweethearts is to send them to Federal prisons in other states - that always seems to upset the "hoodies" the most. A little creative prosecution should be able to come up with SOME crime that warrants a Federal charge.
Unbelievable.
This 15 year old punk, who has a “history of trouble and is on probation” and comes from a family of jailbait, and runs with a group of kids that have no problems beating an old man half to death, steals someones bike and kills himself with it.
But he’s “Not a bad kid”. He’s just “disconnected”.
This is the problem nowadays. And I could tell you my libs friends would be horrified if I suggested this kid did us all a favor by removing himself from the gene pool.
Unfortunately their idea of engaging these lawless POS's and my idea could never be the same.
I have been through New Haven many times, youths like this will NEVER be able to integrate into any civilized society. Either lock them up or put them down, until either of those things are done they will prey on innocent victims for the rest of their violent, worthless lives.
Some boys who identified themselves as Quinell s friends insisted the van driver was at fault.
So the kid on the stolen motorcycle ran the stop sign and splattered himself on the van that was legally driving down the street is somehow the van drivers fault? What, are the thiefs friends from New Orleans?
Let me guess, the thief hot-rodding on the stolen dirt bike was black.
The driver of the van, into which the thief crashed, was white.
> and these so called witnesses just stood there and let
> him get his butt kicked and nearly killed. Nice people.
Easy to understand, really, if my hypothesis concerning the ancestry of the van driver and the thieving dirt bike hot rodder proves true.
Looking at the photos of Quinel’s “friends”, the mayor’s characterization of these villains as “disconnected” is not far from the mark.
. . .
She and two others on the block complained that it took an ambulance at least 15 minutes to arrive. Then they walked by [the boy lying on the ground] to check on the driver.
If Quinell's friends hadn't beat the law-abiding van driver nearly to death, then the ambulance crew would have been able to concentrate their efforts on Quinell. That's my take on it, anyways.
Oh, now it’s ‘disconnected youth’. What happened to ‘underprivileged’, ‘inner-city’, etc?
We have a cultural problem here that everyone is afraid to discuss, due to our pc friends. We can’t fix it until things change, and people finally get fed up with criminals like this. ‘Til then, I suggest you carry concealed.
They used to be called "criminals" .
In New Haven they’re called democrats
Yet the roughly dozen attackers fled and have yet to be apprehended.
It's a crazy hunch, but I'll bet Quinell's "friends" in that photo have bruised and swollen knuckles.
The woman said she and others watched the events unfold from her porch on Shepard Street. Hes riding up and down the street. Its a hot day, he has nothing do, she said. Drivers run that stop sign all the time, she said, making the street more dangerous.
First, since the kid ran into the back of the van, what the hell does the stop sign that gets ignored have to do with anything? The driver of the van followed the law and he shouldn't have??
Next, the deceased punk didn'y have anything else to do? Whose fault is that? He could have been cleaning up trash and pulling weeds or something constructive.
She and others interrupted their tale to watch a brief report about the incident on the 6 oclock TV news. They were outraged that the report focused on the drivers injuries, not Quinells.
What was there to focus on, idiot, besides his rap sheet.
Its sad that they beat the guy up, the woman said, resuming her tale. Youve got to understand, that was his friends. All they see is their friend lying lifeless. They were feeling a kind of rage.
Ah. Poor little thugs. /s Maybe if enablers like you were to take some responsibilty as a roll model, these little heathens might learn how to act responsible.
She and two others on the block complained that it took an ambulance at least 15 minutes to arrive. Then they walked by [the boy lying on the ground] to check on the driver.
Triage, fool. Maybe the " open skull fracture between his eyes" was a tip off as to poor boy's condition.
Sorry, folks, but this article just hit a nerve. These little thugs need to be "reconnected", with a .45 to the head...
....I stay out of black areas in the city...and you should too...they used to be dangerous at night...now it’s 24/7... feral teenage bastards rule the jungle now....even if you pack, you’ll be out gunned...if you’re the victim of a beating a black jury will let your attackers go....and you’ll be injured for life.....incidents like the one described above are tiny little milestones on the road to the coming race war in America.
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