Matt and I played tennis yesterday at the U of I
courts. We finished up around 6:30 PM, and the
attack happened while we were walking home. We're
neighbors, so after tennis, we usually head for
his house, I pet Dixie the dog a little and head
on home to supper. Well, it was hot yesterday, so
after playing, Matt was drinking water from a
water bottle as we walked.
As we approached the crosswalk on Taylor St.,
there was a string of traffic, so we waited for a
break in the traffic and proceeded across Taylor.
When we were two steps past the curb, we signaled
with the "stop" hand signal to an approaching
westbound car. The car then *accelerated* and cut
in front of us, only inches away. In the course
of jumping back, some water splashed from Matt's
water bottle onto the car.
We continued across Taylor and up Deakin St.
Deakin St. extension isn't really a street in that
section, it is more of a one-lane gravel alley in
that section, so we were walking down an alley to
Matt's home. As we were walking, we heard a car
approaching behind us really fast. We turned
around to judge how to jump out of the way, and it
was that same car. The car ground to a halt and
the driver and passenger on the right jumped out
and surrounded Matt. I looked closely to get the
license number, 4AJ810, California, a gray 4-door
late model sedan.
The driver and passenger were young black men,
with stocky builds and are probably U of I or WSU
athletes. The two black men surrounded Matt,
grabbed his racket from him and hit him, HARD, on
the head with his racket. He started gushing
blood. I moved in to interfere with the beating,
and the passenger turned on me with Matt's racket.
We stood there in a racket-to-racket stand off,
while the driver proceeded to thump on Matt. Poor
Matt was in a bloody fog by then, after being
whacked on the head; so he was easily pushed to
the ground and punched and hit. And I was pinned
down in this racket fencing thing.
After a few more kicks and punches to Matt the
attackers retreated to their car and sped away. I
ran back to Matt's house and dialed 911. I guess
I did leave him in a bloody heap in the alley. Oh
well, sorry Matt. I thought it was important to
get the authorities. Little did I know.
A patrol car did eventually respond to my 911
call. The investigating officer, Leonard Sombret
said that there probably was no prosecutable
crime. Of course, prosecution involves the
courts. A police officer can only speak from his
experience from previous cases and from his
criminal justice training The officer is not the
prosecutor or the judge. But a police officer is
very involved in criminal justice on a daily basis
and can therefore "bottom line" the situation as
to what he thinks the prosecutor and the courts
would do. Given that, the investigating officer's
take on the various aspects of this case was:
1. The crosswalk assault by a speeding car:
Officer Sombret didn't see any problem at all. He
repeated the general police advice for pedestrians
run down in crosswalks. Get the license number
and a description of the driver. Contact the
police. Well, I DID that. But, he was clearly
not going any further with it. If there was
anything to sucessfully prosecte, I'm sure that
Officer Sombret would pursue it.
2. The later vehicular assault in the Deakin St.
alley: The driver was justified because some water
splashed on his car when he startled the
pedestrians in the crosswalk. This is not the
officer speaking, of course, but it is his best
guess of what the courts would say.
4. The violent beating: We didn't run away fast
enough. We turned around to get out of the way of
the speeding car in the one lane alley. Worse, we
then hung around to get the vehicle license
number. Therefore, it is a "mutual combat"
situation. The license number turned out to be
semi-useless.
The investigation: This is a place where the
police do call the shots. Matt and I were
interviewed. We wrote out statements. The
vehicle registration was looked up. It was
registered to a *surprise* California address.
Officer Sombret did say that he looked in the
local phone books for someone of the name on the
registration. No luck.
And that's where it stands this morning. If you
see that vehicle, do not approach the driver!!
Inform the police, they might interview the
attacker.
Heidi took Matt to the emergency room. He got the
gash on his head stitched up, but he still has a
big ol' knot on his head, too. You might want to
send Matt a get well message.
Fritz