St. Louis Teen Pleads Guilty to “Knockout Game” Attack

A St. Louis teenager has pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in a “knockout game” attack in November 2011.

Kwame Thomas, 18, of the 2800 block of Osceola Street, admitted to assaulting a 54-year-old man near Osceola and Nebraska Avenue.

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The victim told police that he was approached by a group of people just after 7 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2011. One asked for a cigarette, but the man said he did not have one. He was then struck in the eye and fell to the ground, where others in the group began hitting him in the head and body while yelling “knockout game.”

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The “knockout game” is what some perpetrators call unprovoked attacks on innocent people, where the violence itself is the motive.

Kwame Thomas