A mother is desperately seeking the individuals who brutally beat her 16-year-old son in an on-camera assault that could have cost the boy his life.
“They told me they didn’t know if my son was going to live,” Frankie, the teen’s mother, told NBC4.
Video of the attack showed several people kicking the boy all over his body as he lay on the ground, helpless. Using his hands to shield his face and head to his best ability, the teenager took the brutal beating after he tried to break up a fight at Dockweiler Beach between two girls.
Following the teen’s attempt to stop the fight, a group of four to six males viciously assaulted him.
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“Nobody helped him during the fight, no one said stop,” Frankie said. “No one said, ‘I’m going to call 911.’ Nobody did anything.”
According to the disheartened mother, the group stole her son’s shoes and phone following the attack. They also spewed racist and homophobic slurs at him.
Detectives believe the boy’s attackers are part of a gang and range in age from 14 to 17 years old.
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The victim suffered a punctured lung and lost more than half a liter of blood. As he continues to recover physically, the teen is also dealing with constant pain and trauma.
“My son wakes up through the night yelling,” Frankie said. “I have to lie next to him and tell him, ‘Nobody is coming here for you, baby. Mommy’s here.’ He does not sleep.”
Frankie started an online fundraiser to help them relocate.
“I want to get my son away from here because all those schools are around where I live,” the mother said. “I don’t feel safe. My son doesn’t feel safe.”
While Frankie said she is grateful her son is alive and is thankful for the generous support from donors, she said she will not have peace until the people who assaulted her boy are caught.
“Help me find the people who did this to my son,” she said.
The investigation is ongoing. The Los Angeles Police Department said they received a call of an assault with a deadly weapon stabbing in connection with the violence and believe the suspects fled in a black BMW.
