A 43-year-old man says he made the right decision when he tried to stop three buff bullies from picking on a 14-year-old at the beach. The man, Wen Jones, paid a high price for being a good Samaritan — the pack of 20-year-olds jumped on him and beat him savagely.
The beat down left the Jupiter resident, former Marine and father of two needing surgery to fix a fracture under his eye. He also had stitches all over his face, including his tear duct.
But three months after the attack at Juno Beach Park, still occasionally a little foggy from the concussion, Jones says it was worth it.
"I'm not happy to have been injured pretty severely, but at the same time, I ask myself, would I do it again? You know, it was the right thing to do, so I probably would," he said.
On Wednesday, authorities arrested the last of the three men accused of pummeling Jones on May 19. They nabbed the first two last week.
Cody Moore Roon, Tyler Dylan Carswell and Eric Michael Deiter, all from Palm Beach County, are now facing aggravated battery charges because of the severity of the injuries Jones suffered.
The trouble started early that day at the park, with Roon, Carswell and Deiter bullying the younger kids on the beach, according to police reports. Witnesses told police the three were picking on one child in particular — the 14-year-old boy named Zion, who is an amateur competitive skateboarder from the Jupiter area. The men kicked sand in his face and called him names.
His father, 55-year-old LeRoy Wright Jr., said they used racial slurs toward Zion, who is black. But police have not charged the men with a hate crime, and investigators were not available Thursday to comment further.
Later that day, the 14-year-old and his friends stood near the restrooms and showers, waiting to go home. The three men continued to harass them, so Wright stepped in and told them to leave, the report said.
Jones, who was walking by, saw the gang of athletically built men menacing the man and his son. He knew they were about to attack — and decided he couldn't let that happen.
"I couldn't stand there and watch this older guy and kid get beaten up," Jones said.
"I walked over, said, 'Hey guys, calm down.' The next thing I know, I'm in the middle of a melee. I got tangled up with one the biggest guys and he beat me in the back of the head until I was unconscious. When I came to, I was being beaten in the face."
Around him, people reached for their cellphones and recorded the attack. Police have video from the scene but have not released it.
As the beating started, Wright said he ran to his car to grab a baseball bat. Zion, terrified, could do little more than cry.
The police came and Roon, Carswell and Deiter ran away, but were soon caught with the help of witnesses who pointed them out. Of the three, only Deiter has a criminal history. Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show he pleaded guilty to a battery charge in 2010, when he was 17, and was sentenced to probation.
The bystanders crowded in on Jones to ask if he was OK.
Blood poured from his nose and from one of his eyes, which was swollen shut, officers noted in their report. He was taken to the hospital and underwent surgery a few days later. Wright didn't get a chance to ask Jones for his name, so he hasn't talked to him since that day.
On Thursday, Wright said it hurts him to know Jones was so badly injured. He said he prays he'll recover and hopes to speak with him again.
States need to stop playing games with violent criminals and send them a message they cannot forget; charge these kids under hate crime statutes and give them life in prison to think about what they did here. Re-institute the Roman slavery system by introducing hard manual labor for all violent criminals and incorporate State-owned companies that feed the taxpayer by producing revenue from this labor. Give people a couple generations to understand how this kind of policy will impact individuals and society and watch these crimes disappear for good.
ReplyDeleteNot much of a "marine" that at least he didn't kill or disable permanently at least one of the scum! What did he learn in the boot camp? Peeling potatoes?
ReplyDeleteArticle said he was 48....bootcamp was a long time ago. Do you remember everything you were ever taught? Unlikely. Guess he didn't think he was joining a fight. Probably thinking he was helping to calm things down. Didn't expect savage primitive behavior from them, an obvious mistake on his part. The currently existing "Justice" (just-us) is so corrupt, power hungry, and money grabbing that a verdict based on evidence is unlikely. Bias, evidence tampering, blatant lies, and corruption are so rampant I wouldn't believe a current prosecutors assertion of an event if the fate of the world hung in the balance. Look at the news articles and reports showing people getting out of prison 20 or 30 years later when DNA evidence and DETERMINED families overturn convictions. Would you like to be in one of those labor camps for 20 years......knowing every day that you did not do what they accused you of? After 1/5th of your life is wasted rotting in a jail cell or breaking your back at slave labor would you still be calling for such sentences? I seriously doubt it. Hate crimes are a fallacy invented by the government to bypass Constitutional protections and due process. Yes, the blacks had it bad. Very bad in fact, I don't think that is in dispute. But how many other races that have emigrated here by will or by force have been mistreated? During the Irish emigration they were shunned by whole cities because they were Dirty Drunken Mic's. During the canal and major infrastructure building phase at that same time the Irish were used where the work would be PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS. Why you might ask? Because a Black slave had a dollar value, and the drunken Irish Mic did not! It was considered no loss if one or more were killed. That happened a lot. So in conclusion, more thought should be given to what you say until you have some idea of WHAT you are saying. If you aren't ready to live with the consequences of what you propose (if it effected you) then the less said the better.
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