Three Charged in Beating Caught on Video

SOURCE: http://news.aol.com/article/derrion-alberts-beating-death-captured/690024

CHICAGO (Sept. 28) - Prosecutors have charged three teenagers with first-degree murder in the beating death of a Chicago student who was walking home from school.

Family members believe the victim, 16-year-old Derrion Albert, was fatally beaten Thursday for refusing to join a gang. But some witnesses say he was a bystander who was swept into a violent fight.

A vigil for Albert is planned outside Fenger High School on the city's South Side on Monday afternoon.

Police have been using a video purportedly taken by a person at the scene of the beating to help identify people. The video shows several people beating a stomping a person believed to be Albert.

Albert's grandfather, Joseph Walker, told the Chicago Tribune that he could not bear to watch the recording. "The graphics are too strong for me," he said. "God bless whoever took that video. It did and said it all."

"It hurt to watch," said LaTonia Williams, the boy's aunt, told the paper. "It's one thing to hear about it and come up with your own theory of what happened. To see it is another thing."

But the family said they didn't mind people watching the video as long as it helps identify the culprits.

Cook County state's attorney's office spokesman Andy Conklin says the teens were charged Monday as adults.

damn.. that's fucked up.. looks like another day in Flint if you ask me but smh. that's sad