Teenage sisters savagely kicked, punched & stomped in massive park brawl
Teenage sisters savagely kicked, punched & stomped in massive park brawl
Two teenage girls were savagely beaten by a crowd of people, including parents and other adults, in a New Jersey park as onlookers videotaped the riot and encouraged the violence to continue.
Destiny Cooke, 16, and Lajahia Cooke, 17, were brutally kicked, punched, stomped and shoved around by the mob, who can be heard laughing during the five-minute video filmed in Trenton.
Lajahia said one girl ripped out her earring out before the girl’s mother threw a rock at her ear, leaving a gash that required 12 stitches.
And Destiny has been left with a bald spot after someone grabbed a chunk of her hair.
Throughout the video various people hold the girls down so that others can punch them over and over again. One guy can be heard gleefully screaming ‘they gettin’ busy!’
At one point, according to ABC 7, someone tries to break up the fight but an adult is determined to let it continue, screaming ‘let her get her!’
But perhaps the most disturbing part of the video is when, while Destiny is on the ground, her skirt rides up and men proceed to laugh and take pictures, one even exclaiming ‘somebody smack that!’
Destiny said she was play fighting with her friend at the park on a nice day during spring break last Monday before the riot broke out. She said people saw her and her friend and got the wrong idea.
They came back with a crowd of people who, she said, were looking for a fight. When Lajahia tried to step in and help Destiny, all hell broke loose.
‘It just escalated from there,’ Destiny told NJ.com. ‘Just like a riot broke out, they just started hitting us.’
Destiny said she called her mother and asked her to pick the girls, telling her there were ‘grown women’ walking up to the sisters.
That’s when then the 16-year-old first got hit, causing her to drop her phone.
The girls said they saw multiple police cars at the park as they left. Destiny said no one got out to offer the girls any help, even as Destiny’s nose was bleeding.
‘They just stayed in their cars and just looked at us,’ Destiny said.
‘I just felt like we were out there by ourselves and there were people stomping us on our head,’ she told NJ.com. ‘Nobody was out there trying to help us – nobody.’
According to police spokesman Lt. Stephen Varn, patrol officers received a 911 call for a reported street fight.
Two patrol units arrived at the scene of the brawl and reported that no other police officers were needed.
Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson released a statement saying he was angered ‘by the lack of good Samaritans who should have stepped forward to come to the aid of these victims’.
A park ranger has since been installed to monitor Greg Grant Park.
Police Captain Eddie Gonzalez called the video ‘sickening’ and said the department had identified ‘a number of individuals that were a part of this’.
‘We will take swift action with them very, very shortly,’ he said. ‘Warrants will be issued in the very near future.’
