Four friends allegedly beat a homeless man to death
Georgies wonderful democracy, you know that wonderful democracy he holds up to the world to see, Well Dubya you cant even cope with the USA and all its atrocities and catastrophies,let alone illegal wars and occupations in arab lands, that you certainly miscalulated.
By Madeline Baro Diaz
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
MIAMI - Angry over a homeless man's catcall, four friends went on a "feeding frenzy," police said, beating the elderly man to death with a metal chair, a steel rebar, a rock and a wooden stick.
Two men accused in Saturday's attack are the sons of Christian clergymen. All four have been charged with second degree murder.
"This was pure bloodlust," said Miami police spokesman Lt. Bill Schwartz. "There was no reason for this."
According to a police report, the attack was sparked when Janice Guillen, 18, went to her car to get cigarettes. Guillen told police she heard Jose Perez, 67, who was in the building across the street, toss out a pickup line "she felt was nasty," the report said. She told police she confronted Perez and punched him in the face.
Perez allegedly hit her back, prompting Magdiel Wingfield, 28, Kevin Stone, 27, and Jason Cardenas, 19, to run downstairs from Guillen's Little Havana apartment. The four of them allegedly jumped Perez, punching and kicking him and hitting him with the chair, the rebar and the other objects. At one point they pushed Perez through a glass door, shattering it, the police report said.
Perez was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Wingfield and Cardenas' fathers are clergymen with the Soldiers of the Cross church based in Little Havana. Neither could be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, Guillen was arrested on a misdemeanor theft charge, according to court records. Wingfield was arrested for misdemeanor battery in 2005, but charges were dropped earlier this year. In 1998, he was also arrested for malicious destruction of property and entered a pretrial diversion program.
Police are trying to locate Perez's relatives. He apparently lived in the hallway of the building where he was killed and did odd jobs for people in the neighborhood, Schwartz said.
"He seemed to be a harmless guy," Schwartz said. "Granted, he might not have been the most gentle or the most sophisticated of people, but he certainly did not deserve this type of torturous end to his life."
The brutal beating is part of a nationwide trend of increased violence against the homeless, said homeless advocate Sean Cononie.
Cononie pointed to the case of three teens awaiting trial in the beating death last January of a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., homeless man. William "Billy" Ammons, 18, Thomas Daugherty, 17, and Brian Hooks, 18, are also facing two counts each of attempted murder for allegedly beating two other homeless men. Across the country, homeless people have been set on fire, decapitated and killed in other gruesome ways, Cononie said.
"These crimes toward the homeless are always vicious," he said. "I guess people don't put a value on homeless people's lives."
© 2006 South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Visit the Sun-Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun-sentinel.com
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
By Madeline Baro Diaz
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
MIAMI - Angry over a homeless man's catcall, four friends went on a "feeding frenzy," police said, beating the elderly man to death with a metal chair, a steel rebar, a rock and a wooden stick.
Two men accused in Saturday's attack are the sons of Christian clergymen. All four have been charged with second degree murder.
"This was pure bloodlust," said Miami police spokesman Lt. Bill Schwartz. "There was no reason for this."
According to a police report, the attack was sparked when Janice Guillen, 18, went to her car to get cigarettes. Guillen told police she heard Jose Perez, 67, who was in the building across the street, toss out a pickup line "she felt was nasty," the report said. She told police she confronted Perez and punched him in the face.
Perez allegedly hit her back, prompting Magdiel Wingfield, 28, Kevin Stone, 27, and Jason Cardenas, 19, to run downstairs from Guillen's Little Havana apartment. The four of them allegedly jumped Perez, punching and kicking him and hitting him with the chair, the rebar and the other objects. At one point they pushed Perez through a glass door, shattering it, the police report said.
Perez was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Wingfield and Cardenas' fathers are clergymen with the Soldiers of the Cross church based in Little Havana. Neither could be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, Guillen was arrested on a misdemeanor theft charge, according to court records. Wingfield was arrested for misdemeanor battery in 2005, but charges were dropped earlier this year. In 1998, he was also arrested for malicious destruction of property and entered a pretrial diversion program.
Police are trying to locate Perez's relatives. He apparently lived in the hallway of the building where he was killed and did odd jobs for people in the neighborhood, Schwartz said.
"He seemed to be a harmless guy," Schwartz said. "Granted, he might not have been the most gentle or the most sophisticated of people, but he certainly did not deserve this type of torturous end to his life."
The brutal beating is part of a nationwide trend of increased violence against the homeless, said homeless advocate Sean Cononie.
Cononie pointed to the case of three teens awaiting trial in the beating death last January of a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., homeless man. William "Billy" Ammons, 18, Thomas Daugherty, 17, and Brian Hooks, 18, are also facing two counts each of attempted murder for allegedly beating two other homeless men. Across the country, homeless people have been set on fire, decapitated and killed in other gruesome ways, Cononie said.
"These crimes toward the homeless are always vicious," he said. "I guess people don't put a value on homeless people's lives."
© 2006 South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Visit the Sun-Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun-sentinel.com
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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