"We do not tolerate this viciousness. We do not tolerate this kind of evil in our community," Booker said.
That evil that Booker refers to spilled out for all to witness in a vicious beating of a young man stripped of his clothes and whipped with a belt. All of it was recorded and put out on the internet, leading to a call to Newark police, and now the arrest of these three men and the discovery of a reluctant victim.
"He didn't report this when it took place, like the mayor indicated, and that was out of fear of the individuals that did this to him," Newark police director Samuel DeMaio said.
Police arrested 22 year old Ahmad Holt, 23 year old Jamaar Gray and 31-year old Raheem Clark. All three are charged with aggravated assault, robbery and possession of a weapon . The belt was used to whip the victim.
In much of the video, which was too graphic to show, police say Holt is the man who was behind the vicious beating, wildly swinging away at the victim. Gray allegedly took the video. Investigators believe Clark supplied the belt that was used in what is described as a dispute over a measly $20.
People to whom I showed the video cannot believe it, but Mayor Booker, flanked by troubled police and city council members revealed, that in the alleyway sometime last summer, others witnessed the beating and humiliation.
"Who witnessed this type of vicious brutality and said nothing?" Booker wondered.
While the suspects allegedly stole money from the victim to settle a debt, Mayor Booker says the motive runs much deeper.
"The motivation was intimidation, brutality and cruelty," he said.
Authorities say the determined the crime took place in /*Newark*/ because of all the comments posted on the video, and the subsequent investigation led to the arrests.
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