Upper Darby police arrested six teenagers yesterday and are looking for a seventh who allegedly punched, kicked and hanged a frequent bullying target from a wrought-iron fence. The alleged perpetrators were identified from a video one had taken of the incident with his cell phone camera.
Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said the 13-year-old student at the high school’s alternative-education center, who emigrated from Africa, was confronted in an apartment-complex parking lot Jan. 11. After the initial attack, he tried to run but the teenagers caught him in a nearby park where they hung him up on a
7-foot fence by the back of his jacket.
“His head and neck were perilously close the pointed, jagged edge. This young man could have died,” said Chitwood, noting that the alleged attackers ran off when a passer-by came upon the scene. “This was a violent wolf pack, and the whole time, they thought it was a joke. Bullying can’t be tolerated.”
Since he knew his attackers, police and school-district officials were able to identify, and arrest, six of them yesterday morning.
