Homeless man murdered

[Draptomania]

Police: Homeless man was murdered
'It looked like they were going for the head'

Friday, January 13, 2006; Posted: 12:07 p.m. EST (17:07 GMT)


FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) -- Police say they will seek murder charges against the attackers who beat a sleeping homeless man to death are suspected in two similar attacks in the city a few hours later.

The first attack was caught on a university surveillance video before dawn Thursday. Police were looking for two to four young men.

"It's senseless. If you look at these kids, it was almost like it was fun and games for them," Officer Scott Russell said.
Norris Gaynor, 45, who was later attacked as he slept near the Broward Center for Performing Arts, died from his injuries at a hospital Thursday, police said. The other victims, both hospitalized in serious condition, have not been identified.

The video from Florida Atlantic University shows two men chasing and beating a man who had been sleeping on a bench. "It looked like they were going for the head," Detective Katherine Collins said.

The 58-year-old man found a security guard, who called for help, and the victim was hospitalized with head trauma and defensive fractures, authorities said.

Gaynor was beaten about 90 minutes later in a chillingly similar attack. He had been sleeping on a secluded park bench near the performing arts center, police said.

Another 90 minutes after that, a third homeless man flagged down a fire crew passing a church and said he had been attacked while he slept.

According to the Washington-based National Coalition for the Homeless, 386 homeless people have been attacked nationwide since 1999, resulting in 156 deaths.

Four teenagers pleaded guilty last month to fatally beating a 53-year-old homeless man in Daytona Beach in May. They await sentencing next month. A fifth teen still faces still faces an aggravated battery charge and is free on bail.

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[Kefentse_Bandele]

its funny the state po-ligs here in Detroit just got off in court from killin an homeless mentally unstable Afrikan man with his pants drapped around his ankles. The brutha was killed with witnesses from here to Dakar but he still got off.

What us gon do???

[Draptomania]

its funny the state po-ligs here in Detroit just got off in court from killin an homeless mentally unstable Afrikan man with his pants drapped around his ankles. The brutha was killed with witnesses from here to Dakar but he still got off.

What us gon do???

We don't matter...but I'm preachin to the 'choir'...I dunno what to do....but we need to do it quick...

[Draptomania]

By DENISE KALETTE, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 45 minutes ago



FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Two South Florida teens suspected in the beatings of three homeless men turned themselves in to police Sunday, authorities said.


Family attorneys negotiated the surrender of Brian Hooks, 18, and Thomas S. Daugherty, 17.

They will face murder charges in the death of Norris Gaynor and aggravated battery charges in the videotaped beating of Jacques Pierre, said Capt. Michael Gregory of the Fort Lauderdale police.

They also are suspects in the beating of a third man, Raymond Perez, 49, whose case remains under investigation, Gregory said.

The teens were in police custody pending official charges from a grand jury, Gregory said. Police also were investigating whether the two may have been involved in other beatings and if they had accomplices.

"We do know there have been other assaults of homeless in Fort Lauderdale," Gregory said.

Names of the teens' attorneys were not immediately available.

Pierre, 58, was beaten on the Fort Lauderdale campus of Florida Atlantic University. Gaynor, 45, was killed a few blocks away, and Perez, 49, was beaten in a Church-by-the-Sea garden.

It was not clear if Perez and Pierre remained hospitalized Sunday.