Three girls aged 12 to 13 have been charged with the beating death of a 64-year-old man in the nation’s capital late last year, and the youngest suspect was wounded in the leg in a strange shooting before being arrested.
Nearly six months have passed since the discovery of Reggie Brown’s battered death on October 17, 2023, in Northwest D.C.
During a court hearing last week, Detective Harry Singleton showed the distressing footage, which shows a man in a blue coat initially throwing Brown, a nearly elderly man with impairments, to the ground before the assailants pounded him.
According to the Washington Post, one witness stated that one of the girls begged the man, “Can I fight him?”
A group of five ladies then rushed Brown into an alley and dragged him down as he attempted to climb a chain fence, stomping his head on the concrete. But that wasn’t enough; they pulled his pants down around his ankles, took his belt off, and beat him with it, according to the Post.
“He’s leaking,” one of the ladies exclaims joyfully as Brown reportedly lies in a pool of his own blood before they walk away.
According to the Post, the 12-year-old used her cellphone to record the abuse. One of the girls informed police that two of them did not want to participate in the flogging but were forced to when the unnamed man threatened to shoot them with a revolver he displayed around his waist.
According to Singleton, Brown also had mental health issues, a metal plate in his head, and only two fingers on each hand, as reported by The Post.
On March 28, authorities arrested one 13-year-old suspect, followed the next day by another 13-year-old and a 12-year-old. None of the suspects have a criminal past, but they have a history of chronic absenteeism at school.
Authorities have not identified the suspects because they are minors, but they formally charged both 13-year-olds with second-degree murder during their initial hearing on March 29, despite not prosecuting them as adults.
The 12-year-old girl faces charges after being shot in the foot at her apartment on Peabody Street last Friday, prior to her arrest.
Law enforcement sources did not immediately explain the circumstances of the shooting, including who shot the adolescent girl or whether she was the intended target.
It is also unclear if the gunfire came from inside or outside the girl’s home.
Witnesses told local television channels that two people leaped out and fled down an alleyway, according to officials who reported damage to a window on the first floor of the residence.
Neighbors reported that at least one of the suspects wore black clothing and possibly a mask.
Police eventually detained many adolescents while investigators canvassed the location in the hours before daybreak, but no suspects or arrests have been revealed, and officials have offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
About a half-mile from the scene of Brown’s murder, the shooting took place, and 24 weeks later, a hospital treated one of the main suspects for non-life-threatening injuries before arresting him.
In another twist, all three girls resided in the same Northwest D.C. suburb as the victim, but there was no evidence they had ever met prior to the night Brown was killed, officials said.
In the middle of the night on nearby Georgia Avenue last year, detectives found Brown’s motionless body and declared him dead from blunt force injuries.
An autopsy ultimately found Brown died as a consequence of a homicide, but no suspects were instantly identified despite video surveillance of the crime, which showed three girls kicking and stomping the defenseless guy before walking away calmly.
Following last week’s hearing, the two 13-year-old girls were remanded to a secure adolescent institution, while the 12-year-old girl was scheduled to appear before the judge the day after being injured in a shooting that officials have yet to investigate.
According to the Post, one of the 13-year-olds licked her thumb during a court appearance and eventually fell asleep before the judge woke her up.
According to investigators, Brown’s attackers did not know him, leaving relatives hunting for explanations after a fortuitous encounter on a street corner resulted in violence that claimed his life.
“My uncle really didn’t deserve this,” Brown’s niece told News4 in Washington. “He was well-known in this community for many years, so for this to happen where he had lived for 64 years is insane.” “They must be held accountable.”
According to family members, Brown was a caring man who cared deeply about others and was always willing to help, even going so far as to give someone a shirt from his back.
“He was just a quiet, pleasant individual. He didn’t bother anyone.” That’s the kind of person he was,” a close family friend told FOX 5 in Washington.
The arrests in D.C. occurred concurrently with a similar case in Philadelphia, where adult charges were dropped against two minor defendants accused of beating an elderly black man to death with traffic cones in 2022.
