Police: 7-Year-Old Suspect in Violent Home Invasion in Juniata
Elizabeth Hur, CBS Philly, August 7, 2012
An Eyewitness News exclusive — a violent home invasion has Philadelphia police hunting for some preteen suspects.
Authorities say they beat a 51-year-old woman with some unusual items, including a plunger.
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Authorities say a family friend found the victim in the backyard, on her knees, crying and begging for her life to be spared.
When police arrived, they found her room ransacked, cabinets emptied and the victim, an Asian female with mental disabilities, beaten and robbed.
“They hit her in the face with a rock, they used rope and also sticks and a potted plant,” Lt. John O’Hanlon explained.
Police say the three suspects, described by the victim as black juveniles, ran away with the victim’s purse. Police were eventually able to identify the suspects as 7, 10 and 12-year-old boys.
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We talked to the victim’s family friend who asked that we don’t identify her. “They just followed her. She just got back from doing laundry. When she got home, they beat her and threw stuff into the house.”
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It turns out, the 10-year-old suspect was a neighbor of the victim.
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Lt. O’Hanlon added, “The mother knew something was wrong when she saw the police and she basically came outside and said, ‘Here he is.’”
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By law, we are told, the 7-year-old is too young to be charged with a crime.
