An 18-year-old said he was beaten, chased and called racial slurs while he was hanging out with friends at a Simi Valley shopping mall last week. And the video of the altercation has been receiving a lot of attention on social media.
Michael Robinson said he and his friends were approached by a group of seven or eight other teenagers, who discussed a previous disagreement. Michael said he was not involved in the past issue and did not associate with any of the young men who approached them.
Suddenly, one of his friends was punched in the face, then the group focused on him.
“They were just yelling at me, just racial slurs,” Robinson, who is Black, recalled. “I was fearing for my life honestly because I was only getting hit in the back of the head. I didn’t know if I was going to get out of there.”
Cellphone video appears to capture the moment Robinson said a group of more than half a dozen young men attacked him outside a movie theater in Simi Valley last Friday night.
“I ended up yelling, ‘Help me. Somebody help me,’” Robinson said “They backed off a little bit, so I took the opportunity to run away.”
The 18-year-old said the boys started chasing him again, and he took a chair to separate them from him,
“They ended up throwing the chair at me. It didn’t hit me. But I ran past it. They chased me again,” Robinson said, adding he was finally able to get away when a friend came by in a car and drove him home.
Robinson went home where he lives with Brittany Martin and her family. After hearing about the fight, Martin said she returned to the shopping center and saw police, but a report wasn’t taken immediately.
Martin said when she returned home and reported the incident, an officer came to her door.
“He questioned Michael, ‘Well, why did you leave the scene?’ He was very dismissive,” she said.
A spokesperson for the Simi Valley Police Department said four minors have been arrested for battery, calling the incident disturbing. The department said it’s looking into reported racial slurs and videos taken on the night of the attack. Investigators said it was not immediately clear how the incident began or if it constitutes a possible hate crime.
What concerns Robinson and Martin is one of the alleged attackers is the son of a Simi Valley Police Department member.
The police department also confirmed one of the teens at the scene is related to an employee, but it promised the relationship “has no bearing” on the investigation
“That employee was not at the scene nor will be involved in the investigation,” SImi Valley police said. “A thorough and unbiased investigation will be conducted.”
Robinson’s attorney Jamal Tooson said the police department is not doing enough for the impartiality for the case.
“It’s not enough simply to say that the father won’t be involved in the investigation,” Tooson said. “I think there should be an independent investigative agency who steps in and gets us the justice we deserve.”
Robinson claims he suffered a concussion, broken teeth and other injuries.
The matter will be discussed at the Simi Valley Council meeting on Monday.
Source: NBC Los Angeles
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