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Lyric Opera of Chicago stagehands found themselves in the middle of some real-life drama just outside their doors last month when they came to the aid of a tourist being pummeled in broad daylight. Police say Mark Ball, 50, allegedly began beating a 27-year-old Boston man — for no apparent reason — near 20 W. Wacker about 2:30 p.m. on May 28. For Robert Hartge, a laid-back day — the last of the season at the Lyric — was suddenly turned upside down in an instant. Standing inside the opera’s glass doors on Wacker Drive with other stagehands, Hartge noticed...

In the videos, a man could be heard swearing profusely and laughing loudly as tires squealed in the background. "I said we'll scare the [expletive] out of [expletive]s," the man said, apparently referring to the attack on the joggers. A voice also could be heard saying, "We had fun" and making a reference to the video game "Grand Theft Auto," in which criminals use stolen vehicles to cause death and destruction.

Authorities said that Javier and his friend, who was not identified, were walking in the vicinity of East 189th Street and Arthur Avenue in the west Bronx when they saw the 49-year-old man and asked for a cigarette. The man later told investigators that when he refused and turned to walk away, one of the boys punched him in the head and another hit him with a backpack before running off. He suffered minor injuries. Then, officials and witnesses said, the sergeant grabbed Javier and pushed him hard against the window of the hookah store, shattering the glass and badly...

"Someone came up and slapped a friend of mine in the back of the neck, hard as anything. He actually slapped him twice. I jumped up and said, 'Why are you going to hit someone you don't know?' And he got in my face and said, 'You want to go?'" Gilliland remembered. "He threw the chair and knocked (my friend) on the ground. They started kicking him and stomping on him, so I picked up the chair and I threw it and hit the guy that started it." The video shows the attackers then hitting Gilliland several times until she...

Ibrahim King, 36, was charged with assault just before 4 a.m. at the PATH 9th Street Station for allegedly slugging Elizabeth Meja. The woman’s friend, Steve Sala said, “He looks at her for a very short moment and then he pulls his right fist back and lunges across the railing and punches her in the face.” King tried to flee, but Sala chased him down and applied a choke hold on him. In the scuffle, Sala extracted one of King’s dreadlocks from his scalp.

Three Allentown high school students have been charged with ethnic intimidation for allegedly recording themselves bullying other students and posting the resulting “smack cam video” on Facebook. The suspects used the racial slur “pink” in referring to the white victims, according to investigators. Three teens were sitting at a table in the school cafeteria when three other teens allegedly approached and started making comments. Prosecutors said the teens used profanities to mock the other students’ race, stature and appearance, such as the glasses they were wearing.

BURTON, MI – Two 16-year-old Flint boys are facing assault charges after they allegedly punched a 52-year-old teacher from Otisville in the head while he shopped at Wal-Mart then posted video of the alleged attack online as part of the so-called "knock-out" game. The assault took place around 7 p.m. March 17 at the Wal-Mart on Court Street in Burton. The man was shopping alone when a teen ran up and punched the man while another teen filmed the attack with a cellphone, according to police. They then fled the scene. The victim, a teacher at an area school, suffered...

by Jason DeWitt | Top Right NewsIn an attack reminiscent of the “Knockout Game,” a Wendy’s employee was assaulted in what is known as “Smack Cam” - the latest sick trend of the "thug culture." In the video posted on YouTube, a teenage boy is recorded at an Austin Wendy’s Tuesday night going up to 16-year-old Calaybra Jones pretending to order. The teenager then smacks her across the face before running out into a getaway car. WATCH:

Ten years ago, the media in Louisville, Ky., could have gotten away with reporting this weekend’s events this way: A group of 10 “roving teens got into a fight with two girls … then it happened a few more times over two hours.” But now, less than 24 hours after a mob of 30 black people roamed through the city’s downtown Saturday, beating, laughing, destroying property, sending three seriously hurt people to the hospital and walking away laughing, outraged citizens in Louisville are asking two questions: Why is black mob violence such a problem? And when is local media going...

Baton Rouge police on Tuesday arrested two teens accused of beating up a 55-year-old man on Feb. 1, causing him to fall, hit his head and suffer brain hemorrhaging. The victim, John Bannon, 1654 Clear Lake Lane, Baton Rouge, died from his injuries Friday, according to the arrest warrant for Windal Lavel Herring. Police booked Herring, 17, 8211 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, into Parish Prison on counts of second-degree murder and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

New Orleans police on Wednesday (Feb. 19) released descriptions of two teenagers wanted in connection with one of the two reported baseball bat attacks against bicycle riders early last Friday. A composite sketch was provided for one of the suspects, whom police described as a man around 18 years old, approximately 6 feet tall and weighing 170 pounds, with an athletic build and dark complexion. He was last seen wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt and grey sweatpants.

EXCLUSIVE: Mob of teens attack man in downtown Cleveland Updated: Feb 11, 2014 By Ed Gallek Ed Gallek talks to Matthew Robinson, the latest victim in a downtown attack There's evidence of more violent teens running around the heart of downtown Cleveland. A disabled Army vet spoke out about the latest attack that happened Friday, Feb. 7, 2014. Matthew Robinson told our Ed Gallek he was riding RTA's Healthline when six to eight teenagers surrounded him on the bus, and then started following him. Then, he said they attacked, took his stuff, and videotaped what they were doing. The incident...

<p>ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) - An 18-year-old has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for throwing a punch in a St. Cloud alley that killed a college student.</p> <p>Jesse Smithers of Sauk Rapids earlier pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of 20-year-old Colton Gleason.</p>

A Massachusetts college sophomore is under arrest for a string of vicious, totally random, “knockout game”-style attacks against three fellow students. Dillon Destefano walked up to three people he didn’t know and sucker-punched them in the face, reports CBS Boston. Police say the incidents occurred in the wee hours of Sunday, Feb. 2 at or near Endicott College, a small private school in a small New England town about 25 miles north of Boston. The victims were walking home. Two of Destefano’s alleged victims suffered major injuries. One student, a freshman baseball player, was hospitalized with a broken jaw and...

An unhinged Brooklyn man accused of punching seven women — including a 78-year-old — in brutal “knockout” attacks last year told cops he attacked six of them in “self-defense,” and hit another woman because she almost made him spill his Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, court papers revealed Wednesday. Barry Baldwin, 35, hit the women in seven separate attacks in Canarsie and Midwood between Nov. 7 and Dec. 27, court papers state. His Jan. 3 arrest came in the midst of a slew of possible “knockout game” attacks — in which innocent people are sucker-punched by thrill-seeking punks — including multiple attacks...

Two African-American knockout-style attackers in Charlottesville were immediately released on their own recognizance and only charged with a misdemeanor after an assault on a man and woman in a downtown shopping mall on December 20. Police Chief Longo, who arrested the assailants, said there is evidence of the male victim losing a tooth and suffering soft tissue damage but he would need evidence of more serious injuries to raise the charges. The injuries were far more serious than that according to the victims. In the meantime, these two assailants didn’t even have to post bail. The police department never used...

Rochester does not have a problem with black mob violence. Or black on white crime. The city does, however, have a problem with white people who are not used to it.So says a Rochester city councilman.The latest example is a “disturbing” video of a group of black people laughing and dancing as they talk about how they are going wait for an “old lady” to leave a convenience story, then smash her in the face with a snow ball. And a fist.Which they did. Thanks to the efforts of local activist Davy V., police have a copy of the video...

Rochester New York police are characterizing the brazen attack of an elderly woman as harassment rather than what it appears to be—another example of the hotly-debated “knockout game.” The attacker, a young black male who operated a Facebook account under the name “True Goon Tocool Sneekey”, narrated his plan for the camera. […] Despite the obvious assault, Rochester police spokeswoman Sgt. Elena Correia said that the incident “is more likely an example of a harassment than an assault,” reported The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. …

A Brooklyn man named Barry Baldwin, 35, has been arrested and charged with five incidents in which Jewish women were viciously punched for no apparent reason. The incidents are seen as being connected to a sadistic game called the “knockout game,” which involves targeting unsuspecting victims on the street and knocking them out with a sucker punch. Police picked up Baldwin last week, and originally connected him to six incidents and charged him with six hate crimes because he targeted Jewish victims, sources told the Daily News. For some reason, the charges were later downgraded to assaults without a hate...

It was his turn to get knocked out. The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force busted a Brooklyn man for at least seven “knockout” assaults, cops said Friday. Barry Baldwin, 35, punched out the victims between Nov. 9 and Christmas Eve in Canarsie and Midwood, police said. All of the victims were white women and most were Jewish, a law-enforcement source said. At least two of the attacks occurred on the Sabbath.