Authorities are looking for six young people who attacked a 12-year-old boy in a Brooklyn deli earlier this month -- a wild assault that was caught entirely on store surveillance cameras, police say.
The victim was inside a deli and candy store on Marcy Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant in around 5:30 p.m. July 13 when the group, some of its members shirtless, set upon him.
Surveillance video shows the group attacking the kid, identified by his mother as Alexander, with whatever they could find including a red shopping basket. Cans, crates and other objects were thrown at him, and one of the attackers can be seen on video stomping on his chest as he is lying on the ground. They punched and kicked him repeatedly before fleeing the store, police said.
The boy suffered a bruised head but refused medical attention at the scene. It wasn't immediately clear what prompted the attack, while the boy's mother believes that her son was targeted in a bias attack motivated by one of the attacker's parents. She is imploring those parents to stop harassing her son, and says they know he is being bullied.
"She's putting out there that my son is gay because he wrote her son a message on Facebook in third or fourth grade saying, "thank you for being my friend,'" said Valerie Prince. She said that her son is scared, and now "doesn't want to come out in public without me or an adult or someone who's going to protect him."
Prince said that she is worried about the mental and emotional damage done to her done after the traumatic experience.
"Everywhere he goes, he's being circled out, and it's said," she said. "It's sad that he cannot be a kid."
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Meanwhile, the clerk behind the counter during the attack said something like a panic button around the register that automatically notifies the police — part of an initiative that is still being discussed for bodegas after the Junior Guzman killing in the Bronx more than two years ago — could he helpful to prevent violent incidents.
No arrests have been made, and an investigation is ongoing.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
