TEENS CHARGED WITH BEATING HOMELESS MAN
- BSO Case Number: PB09-05-06641
- PIO Number: 09-10-29
- Date: July 2008
- Time: n/a Jurisdiction: Pompano Beach
- Place of Occurrence: Blue Sky Motel, 501 S. Ocean Blvd., Pompano Beach
Victim(s):
- James Cunningham, male, 54 (AT LARGE)
Suspect(s):
- Brandon Edwards, male, 19, 7/14/90, 2220 N.E. 53rd St., Fort Lauderdale (IN CUSTODY)
- William Sleight, male, 19, 6/27/90, 407 S.E. 7th Ave., Deerfield Beach (IN CUSTODY)
- Nicholas Bakum, male, 19, 9/9/90, 4441 N.E. 30th Ave., Lighthouse Point
- Unidentified male, possibly goes by the name “Brad”
Description of Incident:
In early July 2008, three teenaged friends tormented a homeless man in a motel parking lot. They taunted, smacked, pushed, dragged, carried and yelled at the 54-year-old victim. As if that wasn’t enough, a fourth teen recorded the profanity-laced attack with his cell phone.
Broward Sheriff’s Office detectives saw the two videos called “Beating Up a Crackhead,” parts one and two online. They discovered the recorded assault during their investigation of the April 2009 attack of two men, Craig Cohen and David Villanova, in Oakland Park. One of the teens in the video was once a suspect in the Cohen and Villanova beatings.
The first video lasts two minutes, 34 seconds, and the second lasts one minute, 14 seconds.
The apparently intoxicated and physically unstable Cunningham repeatedly asks his assailants to leave him alone. They continue to taunt him, laughing and joking during the attack, slapping him in the head, pushing him on the ground, grabbing his arms and legs and carrying him down Southeast 5th Street.
At one point, one assailant turns to the camera and says, “You got this?” His friend with the cell phone responds, “I got everything, bro.” Cunningham, who was not injured in the attack, never reported it to law enforcement.
Brandon Edwards and William Sleight have been arrested. Detectives are looking for Nicholas Bakum and are asking for the public’s help identifying the fourth person involved. On the video, he is wearing dark shorts and a dark hat with no shirt.
Anyone with information about this crime can report it to the BSO Aggravated Felonies Unit at 954-786-4300 or report it anonymously to Crime Stoppers of Broward County at 954-493-TIPS or online at www.browardcrimestoppers.org.
- INVESTIGATORS: Dets. Copley, Kogan, Sgt. Feeley, RID Pompano Beach
- THIS REPORT BY: Dani Moschella/PIO 10/27/2009 1130
Arrest Search:
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