Posted on 01/14/2006 8:44:00 AM PST by LibWhacker
Police questioned high school students about suspects caught on video beating a homeless man and said they expect to make an arrest soon.
Fort Lauderdale police were questioning current and former students from South Plantation High School late Friday as detectives closed in on an arrest in the bludgeoning death of a homeless man and the brutal beating of two others.
Police were investigating a tip that one suspect -- thought to be one of three males seen on a surveillance video savagely swinging baseball bats or sticks -- is a former student who graduated last year.
''Our friend knows who one of the kids in the video is,'' said a high-school aged youth, before homicide detective Ghalib Carmichael whisked him and several other teens into police headquarters.
An arrest is expected soon, said police, who added that an attack on a homeless woman two months ago may have been done by the same bunch.
In Thursday's attacks, the young men struck while each of the three homeless men were sleeping, striking them on the head and shoulders, according to the video.
The surveillance camera captured one of the three beatings, that of Jack Pierre, 58, around 1 a.m. Thursday on a bench outside the downtown Fort Lauderdale campus of Florida Atlantic University, 111 E. Las Olas Blvd.
An hour later, a group attacked Norris Gaynor, 45, as he slept on a bench at Esplanade Park across the street from the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
A friend found Gaynor on a bench at Esplanade Park near the PAC. He died at Broward General Medical Center.
The third victim, Raymond Perez, 49, was battered outside the Church-by-the-Sea, off the 17th Street Causeway about 4 a.m. He managed to stumble onto the causeway in time to flag down a Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue truck that happened to be passing by.
Perez and Pierre remained in fair condition Friday at Broward General with broken bones and lacerations.
Both victims said two men were waiting in a white pickup or van while two others carried bats or sticks.
SON WAS A LONER
Gaynor's father, Samuel Gaynor, said Friday he was shocked when police called him telling him his oldest child had been murdered.
He and his wife, Georgia, will be arriving in Fort Lauderdale Sunday from Pensacola to claim their son, whom they described as a wanderer.
''He's been like that his whole life, uncomfortable around crowds and people,'' said Samuel Gaynor. ``I was in the Navy and moved every two years. Guess he just got used to that.''
He said he last saw his son about a year ago, but Gaynor would call home periodically.
''Now I'm making a trip to Fort Lauderdale that I'd rather not do,'' Samuel Gaynor said. ``My son never bothered anyone. He just wanted to be left alone.''
Within hours of the attacks, Fort Lauderdale police, the department's homeless outreach team and advocates hit the streets, distributing fliers with photos of the attackers.
While police talked with informants, checked out tips and examined evidence, other officers patrolled near the favorite haunts of the homeless, watching for a white vehicle that may have been used in the getaway.
POSSIBLE LINKS
Investigators called other departments to see if any crimes had been committed against the homeless in their cities.
About a dozen Florida Guardian Angels from Fort Lauderdale in their red berets and red jackets also patrolled Friday. They will have a presence until the suspects are caught, said Wilka Claro, the group's regional director.
''We want to be a deterrent to another incident,'' Claro said.
The beating of an 84-year-old woman in downtown Fort Lauderdale two months ago could have been the work of the same men, police say.
On Nov. 21, Charlotte York was sleeping in front of a vacant building in downtown Fort Lauderdale when two men struck her several times on the head and shoulders with a large stick.
The homeless woman told police she woke up and fought back. The attackers ran away, leaving the area in a white vehicle, police said.
''We're looking at all the crimes that have been committed against the homeless over the last few months to see if they might be connected,'' said Fort Lauderdale detective Katherine Collins.
Meanwhile, the homeless took steps Friday to protect themselves. Since the attackers were still at large, the beatings left them more cautious and leery at night.
''This is an ongoing thing,'' said Miles Johnson, 55, who said he was harassed in the park by a different group. ``What's going to happen is someone is going to retaliate.''
Johnson and a few other homeless men were about to settle for the night in Rev. Samuel Delevoe Park in Fort Lauderdale last summer when strangers hurled rocks and sticks at them in the darkness.
The men chased eight boys from the park. They caught one cowering in the bushes. They scolded the frightened teenager and sent him home.
Johnson said homeless people were poring over newspapers Friday, looking at pictures of two of the suspects captured on video.
Friday, he rested on a milk crate outside Fort Lauderdale's Cooperative Feeding Program.
''This is ludicrous for things like this to happen in this day and age,'' he said.
These boys need to be humanely euthanized.
Worse than. . .
Would we allow a rabid dog to run loose in the city?
No, we would kill it. Same thing.
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