According to court documents obtained by KFOR, a homeless man identified as Tilman Shannon was jumped and nearly beaten to death by a large group of teens on May 26.
Oklahoma City police have arrested two teens and are searching for several more after following a brutal attack on a homeless man who was left for dead.
According to court documents obtained by local news station KFOR, a homeless man, identified as Tilman Shannon, was nearly beaten to death after being jumped by a mob of teens on May 26 in the parking lot of a 7/11 gas station.
Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Dillion Quirk told KFOR that some of the most heinous parts of the attack were found on social media, as one of the alleged suspects, Veronica Benavente, 19, streamed the attack on her Instagram page.
Police said that Benavente is heard in the minute-and-a-half video telling Shannon, “We are kids,” before reportedly yelling racist slurs at the man.
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The group is said to have bragged about being kids in the fight and laughed several times as they continued to beat him.
Not only was the attack reportedly streamed online for all of Benavente’s followers to see, surveillance video captured the whole ordeal, and revealed that several teens were involved, kicking things off by yelling and threatening Shannon from one of their cars.
The footage sees Shannon attempt to run away, only to be beaten down near a dumpster at the opposite end of the parking lot.
Quirk told KFOR that the teens went so far as to pull Shannon’s colostomy bag out during the attack.
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“He had some pretty severe injuries and pretty significant trauma,” Quirk told KFOR, before sharing that Shannon was taken to a local hospital and is expected to survive.
Police said about nine teens were involved in the attack, but as of now, only Benavente, Eric Villagomez, 18, and three other juvenile suspects, were arrested. But they are still searching for four other suspects seen in the video.
According to arrest records, obtained by the New York Post, Benavente is being held in the Oklahoma County Detention Center on $150,000 bond and is facing charges of aggravated assault and battery, accessory to crime and conspiracy to commit a felony. Villagomez, meanwhile, is being held on a $100,000 bond and is facing charges of aggravated assault and battery, maiming and conspiracy to commit a felony.
OKC police are asking anyone who knows anything about the incident to contact Crimestoppers at 405-235-7300.
