INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Knockout Game Attack In Paterson, New Jersey: One Teen Suspect Arrested

By Robert Jonathan
Published on: 03:41 PST, Feb 9, 2016

A brutal knockout game attack in Paterson, New Jersey, has resulted in the arrest of one 16-year-old suspect, with a second arrest of the teen who allegedly delivered the vicious blow imminent.

The headline-making cell phone video (see clip embedded below) of the sucker-punch attack on an elderly man for no apparent reason went viral on Facebook, with the subsequent outrage prompting police detectives in the north Jersey city to launch a full-scale investigation. The incident apparently occurred in December, but was unknown until it gained traction on social media last week.

The teen taken into custody is allegedly the individual that filmed the assault and egged on the assailant — the alleged attacker himself is still at large, but perhaps not for long.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, the vicious punch to the face sent the victim crashing to the pavement and apparently rendered him unconscious.

The knockout game is a disgusting trend — often captured on cell phone and/or surveillance video — involving one or more teenagers targeting unsuspecting, random strangers with an aim of decking them with one haymaker. Some of the past reported attacks appear to have a racial component.

According to Paterson’s police chief, “the video shows an elderly man getting ready to cross Rosa Parks Boulevard from Van Houten Street. The video shows the victim being approached by the 17-year-old while the 16-year-old allegedly tells him to ‘Knock him out! Knock him out!’ The 17-year-old has a brief exchange with the victim before striking him. The elderly man falls to the ground, apparently unconscious,” the Paterson Times explained. “This shameless act of violence was thoroughly investigated and the tireless efforts by the detectives involved is commendable,” he noted.

North Jersey.com reports that alleged attacker plans to turn himself in to police today. The suspect’s lawyer “added that he planned to enter a not guilty plea on behalf of the teenager, who lives in Paterson, to charges of aggravated assault and endangering an injured victim.”

Cops know who the suspect is and have reportedly not called off the search, however, and will take the teen into custody should they locate him before he surrenders.

The identity and the extent of the victim’s injuries are unknown at this time.

The 16-year-old alleged videographer surrendered to cops on Saturday and faces similar charges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeNZtbDR89c

Calling the Paterson attack “beyond disturbing,” New Jersey State Senator Tom Kean indicated on Twitter that he had previously introduced legislation to criminalize the recording, sharing, distribution, and publishing of knockout game assaults. If enacted into a law, an offender found guilty under the proposed statute could be jailed for up to five years and ordered to pay a $15,000 maximum fine.

“The rules of the game are as simple as they are brutal. A group — usually young men or even boys as young as 12, and teenage girls in some cases — chooses a lead attacker, then seeks out a victim. Unlike typical gang violence or other street crime, the goal is not revenge, nor is it robbery. The victim is chosen at random, often a person unlikely to put up a fight. Many of the victims have been elderly. Most were alone,” the Associated Press explained in a December, 2011, article about the knockout game.

[Image via YouTube]

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