A court in Washington DC heard the gruesome details of how five children allegedly beat a disabled man to death, leaving the 13-year-old girl responsible for the fatal blow sobbing.
Police Detective Harry Singleton described what he saw the night of Reggie Brown’s death in October, as well as an interview he conducted with the 13-year-old, who he said fatally kicked Brown in the head, during a preliminary hearing Thursday.
He described the role of the unidentified 13-year-old as “the most brutal part of the murder,” when she and four of her friends beat the 64-year-old until he stopped breathing, WUSA 9 reports.
As Singleton spoke, the teen became emotional and began to cry.
She and three of her friends, all between the ages of 12 and 15, now face charges of second-degree murder and assault with a dangerous weapon. The fifth girl, 15, has pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of assault with a dangerous weapon — which prosecutors say was her foot, according to the Washington Post.
Reggie Brown, 64, was allegedly beaten to death by five girls one night in October
During previous hearings, prosecutors have aired cellphone footage captured by at least one of the teens showing the girls kicking Brown, stomping his head on the sidewalk, pulling his pants down to his ankles, removing his belt and beating him with it.
It would also show how they partied afterwards.
During a separate hearing on Tuesday, prosecutors also released video footage from Washington, D.C., police headquarters showing Singleton driving one of the teens and her mother to his office.
In the video, the teen claims she and four other girls were walking down Georgia Avenue when they saw an unknown man beat Brown and drag him by the collar, the Post reports.
She said she and her friends heard the adult man yell at Brown, “I gave you an hour and you didn’t give me my money.”
The teen said one of her friends asked, “Do you need help? Can we fight him?” to which the unidentified man ordered the girls to continue fighting Brown and allegedly threatened to kill them if they didn’t.
The unknown man was captured on video wearing a blue jacket, but was never arrested.
The girls allegedly kicked Brown, stomped his head on the sidewalk, pulled his pants down around his ankles, removed his belt and beat him with it.
They said they were walking down Georgia Avenue that night when they saw an unknown man beating Brown and dragging him by the collar — and they joined him.
The teen also said she “froze” when she saw Brown start to bleed and stopped kicking him.
She claimed she gave Brown a gentle kick in the leg and told Singleton: “I saw him take his last breath.”
Singleton has since testified that despite the girl’s claim that the unknown man threatened her and her friends with a gun if they didn’t fight Brown, there was no evidence the man had a gun in the video.
The five teens were eventually charged with Brown’s murder in March and are being held in the DC Department of Juvenile Rehabilitation as they await trial next month.
If found guilty, four of the teens face a maximum sentence of confinement in a juvenile rehabilitation center until they turn 21, after which they would be released under the law.
It is not yet clear what punishment the 15-year-old will receive after pleading guilty to the lesser charge.
Brown suffered from lupus, an immune system disease that affected his hands and feet, and from cancer.
Her lawyer, Philip Skillman, told Judge Kendra D Briggs on Monday that prosecutors allowed the teenager to plead guilty to the lesser charge because she “immediately” accepted responsibility and “did not play as significant a role” as the other four.
District Attorney Gabrielle LoGaglio accepted the deal, noting that the 15-year-old was also wanted in Maryland in connection with two robberies at the time of the attack.
Skillman requested that his client be released and returned to her mother until her sentencing was announced on September 13, but Briggs denied the request.
Meanwhile, Brown’s family wants justice for his death.
“These are not girls. These are animals and they should be locked up for the maximum amount of time,” Brown’s sister, Nasia Israel, told the Post.
“He was on his way home and they just took his life,” added her brother, Samuel Brown.
“He didn’t deserve this. Nobody deserved this.”
The family had previously said he was the youngest of seven children and had struggled with lupus – an immune system disease that affected his hands and feet – and cancer. He had also lost six fingers.
They say they now want to ensure that no other family has to endure such a horrific crime.
“Everyone is sad about it, we’re just trying to get through this,” one of Brown’s sisters told WUSA 9.
“We simply don’t want this to happen to another family. We are not just taking a stand for Reginald Brown, but for all American families,” she added.