Baseball Bat Attack Arrests Made, Victim Will Pull Through

A baseball bat attack in Roanoke has resulted in five arrests and left one victim with “serious wounds” to the face, authorities confirmed.

Nineteen-year-old Jermaine Peavy (pictured above) was arrested and charged with “malicious wounding.” Police stated that they believe Peavy was “the one with the bat,” though another 19-year-old, Khalil Marquise Taylor, was also arrested along with three juveniles.

All will be facing malicious wounding charges in the baseball bat attack, though it’s unclear how hard prosecutors plan to go after the three underage perpetrators.

The victim, who only wanted to be identified as “Matt,” lives in Roanoke. He was taken to Carilion Roanoke Memorial hospital with serious injuries to the face, Roanoke.com reported, but “has since been released.”

In a separate report from WSLS, police said “the two groups involved in the fight in front of Roanoke Natural Food Co-Op knew each other and the fight was about drugs and theft. But the victim, who was severely beaten, wasn’t a part of it, saying he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The victim, speaking to the news site, was described as having “two black eyes, multiple facial fractures and broken teeth.”

“You just wasted so many years of your life for someone you don’t even know. That’s all I can say. I wouldn’t press charges if they wouldn’t have used the bat. I wouldn’t have cared,” said Matt, who added he was in Grandin Village when he saw a group of people causing trouble.

“They were going to try and rob them basically and I didn’t let it happen. I said, ‘No you’re not going to do this.’ I stood in front of them and they all threatened to fight me.”

Eric Michael Larsen, a musician who was playing just feet away, added that “As the kids left they did say, ‘We’re coming back, I’m going to kill you.”

The group returned with the baseball bat.

“When everyone was packing up to leave, a green van pulled up and four bikes rolled up, they let four to five people out of the van,” said Matt.

“He was standing right here and the boy came around and you could hear the crack, you could hear the shatter. It sounded like a home run hit. It was terrible,” said Larsen, who then tried to break up the fight. “That first hit could’ve killed him. It was grace and bad aim that saved that boy’s life.”

The victim was in the hospital for three days and said he “still has double vision.”

“When I saw him I just busted out in tears. You don’t want to see your son like that,” said Bobbie, Matt’s mother. “Grandin’s a good neighborhood. You wouldn’t think someone would get attacked.”

She referred to her son’s story as “heartbreaking,” adding, “We need our community to come together understand that say we’re not going to tolerate this. You cannot act like this.”

What do you think should happen to the juveniles and two 19-year-olds responsible for the baseball bat attack?