‘Trayvon Thugs’ Blamed For Scooter Beating, Theft

A rumor about “Trayvon thugs” who allegedly viciously attacked a scooter shop owner, beating him and stealing his “candy apple red” scooter ride, has been making the rounds today.

We first encountered the “Trayvon thugs” story on Snopes, but soon the tale began to show up on Facebook media pages across the internet.

An Alex Jones reader named Kenneth posted the following account, explaining that a “Justice For Trayvon” rally had turned larcenous, with “six to ten” black youths attacking a man named Brooks Macquarrie and viciously beating him before riding off on the scooter. (Probably not all of them, we assume, due to scooter size constraints.)

The account was taken word for word from a scooter forum, and has been passed around near verbatim in this form:

“Today, the owner of a New Haven, Connecticut motorsports shop was out test driving a motor scooter that his mechanics had repaired, when a mob of justice for Trayvon thugs pulled him off of the scooter and beat him to a pulp. He was severely beaten by 6-10 black teenagers. He has no memory of the attack and is recovering in a local hospital. Luckily there were witnesses and police are pursuing leads but the lame-stream media refuses to report this incident….SMH in disbelief.”

Snopes points back to a media report, which does not initially connect the incident with any Trayvon Martin rallies, and the source suggests that the incident was a straight out robbery.

Later reports are even murkier, and the news site admits no one witnessed the alleged beating and theft. The site explains that further examination reveals Macquarrie — who has no recollection of the incident — was likely not beaten by any black teenagers, much less nearly a dozen:

“Doctors who evaluated Macquarrie said his injuries are inconsistent with a quick beat down, according to Lawlor. Macquarrie had 31 stitches and eight staples in his scalp, two fractured ribs and a fractured right eye-socket following the incident. He was sent to Yale-New Haven Hospital for treatment… The last thing he remembers is being parked on his scooter at a red light before noticing the group of teenagers crossing the street, according to a previous Register report. One teen on a bicycle came close before, but his next memory was waking up in the hospital.”

While the “Trayvon thugs” angle appears to stem from the scooter forum, it’s likely the Macquarrie incident will be long rumored to be related to a “Justice For Trayvon” rally regardless of the facts determined.