MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Memphis teenager who was accused of not being a loyal gang member was beaten into unconsciousness in a brutal attack caught on video.
According to WREG-TV in Memphis, the 16-year-old victim, identified only as Octavius, was seen on camera being beaten repeatedly by two members of his former gang, the Crips, in an April 5th incident. Octavius says that he had been trying to get out of the gang, and when he couldn’t recite something he was supposed to know, he was jumped by the two attackers as he walked home from school.
Seventeen-year-old Adarius Green and 17-year old Timothy Taylor were both charged with aggravated assault in connection to the beating. Both were in court Tuesday and were detained, WREG reports.
“I haven’t been going to the meetings, and I had caught up with all the stuff and they just took it to another level,” he told WREG. “I could have been dead but thanks to the grace of God I’m not.”
Octavius’ mother, Keisha Thompson, says that she was horrified when she found out what had happened to her son.
“Terrifying, scary, upsetting, hurt, uproar, I was boiling over,” said Thompson. “Why are they beating up like he’s not a human being?”
Octavius says that he is no longer a Crip, and is moving on with his life.
“Just trying to get my education find a job change my life around,” he said, adding that he has a message for other young people about gangs. “Don’t join them. It’s not right. They’ll tell you a thing and say another.”
Click here for more on this story from WREG.
