A 16-year-old boy has been charged with felony mob action following what police say was a group beating a man in Aurora with baseball bats.
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An off-duty Aurora police evidence technician saw the teen taking part in the beating on the city’s East Side and stopped it, according to police.
At about 3 p.m. Nov. 28, the off-duty investigator was driving when he saw three people, including the teen charged, walking with baseball bats southbound from Kenmore Avenue to Forest Avenue. They approached a vehicle occupied by two females who were acquaintances of the teen and began smashing out the windows, police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said in an email.
The investigator called in the incident but by the time he turned his own car around, the three people were beating a 33-year-old Aurora man in a yard on the 500 block of Forest Avenue, Ferrelli said.
When the investigator saw the three armed with baseball bats beating the man, who was in fetal position on the ground trying to protect himself, the investigator immediately stopped his vehicle, drew his service weapon and ordered the three to the ground, according to a statement posted to the police department’s Facebook page.
Two of the people ran away while the 16-year-old complied with the officer’s commands, according to police.
A 22-year-old woman had minor cuts and scrapes from flying glass during the attack on the vehicle, but both she and the 33-year-old man refused treatment, Ferrelli said.
The crime does not appear to be random, Ferrelli said. It appears to be a continuing dispute, but police do not know if gang involvement was a motive, Ferrelli said.
Police are continuing to investigate. The 16-year-old charged has been released to a parent, Ferrelli said.
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