Vietnam Vet Randomly Attacked By 'youths'

[Storm]

Source and Video @ http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/01/19/vietnam-vet-randomly-attacked-by-teens-on-olney-street/


PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A Vietnam veteran who lost his eye while serving his country was violently beaten during a random attack by a group of teens on a Philadelphia street earlier this week.

The attack happened shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday in the 5000 block of N. 5th Street in the city’s Olney section.

“These animals are specializing on our elderly people out here and a gentleman who served our country,” Lt. George McClay said.

According to investigators, 64-year-old Edward Schaefer was walking to meet his wife at the bus stop when he was approached from behind by six males.

McClay said one of the suspects began the violent attack and the others joined in on the random beating.

The suspects then fled the scene on foot after police say a good Samaritan came to the victim’s rescue.

“He fell and that’s when I came across the street. When they saw me, that’s when they scattered,” said Donald Jones. “He was trying to talk and I said, ‘No, stay there. I got you.’”

Schaefer was rushed to Albert Einstein Medical Center with fractured skull and severe injuries to his face and hand.

“I’m disgusted by this whole thing,” McClay said. “I’m surprised he survived.”

McClay said “one more shot the wrong way” and this could have been a homicide investigation.

The suspects are described as six black and Hispanic males, between the ages of 16 to 18. Authorities say all of the suspects have been identified. Once they have been apprehended, they could be charged with attempted murder.

The Fraternal Order of Police is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects.

Anyone with information is urged to call 215-686-TIPS (8477) or 215-686-3353/54.

[Contra Mundum]

There was a young man beaten to death in Philly 2 days ago by a group of middle eastern or Hispanic males.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/17/article-0-0F81427C00000578-369_306x493.jpg

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088090/Kevin-Kless-beaten-death-steps-away-Philadelphias-historic-Liberty-Bell.html


Is nowhere sacred? Graduate beaten to death outside Philadelphia Liberty Bell - after thugs took his call for a taxi for abuse

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Last updated at 1:28 PM on 18th January 2012


Beaten to death: Kevin Kless, 23, was declared dead in a Philadelphia hospital hours after being attacked near the historic Liberty Bell

A man was fatally beaten near the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia when a group of men attacked him, mistakenly thinking that he was yelling at them instead of a cab driver who passed him by.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/17/article-2088090-0F813E1300000578-356_634x459.jpg

Kevin Kless, 23, recently graduated from college and had left a bar with his girlfriend early Saturday morning when the incident occurred.

Police are seeking four suspects and offering a $15,000 reward for information to help the investigation.

Three men got out of a car behind the cab and started kicking and punching Kless, who fell to the sidewalk severely injured.

The three men and the driver of the car then drove off and Mr Kless was pronounced dead at a hospital several hours later.

Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter took to Twitter to condemn the killing: ‘Encourage ANYONE who knows or saw anything about this incident to give us info, we need to catch these people, asap!’

Investigators have little information in Mr Kless' killing, which happened as he tried to stop the cab a few blocks from Lucy's Hat Shop, a bar that he and his friends had just left in the city's historic section.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/17/article-2088090-0F81428000000578-353_306x423.jpghttp://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/17/article-2088090-0F81427400000578-35_306x423.jpg

The area, where Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell are located, is also home to many bars and restaurants and is a popular hangout for young adults.

When the cab stopped, police said, Kless got involved in a conversation with the cab driver, who then drove off.


Scene: Mr Kless was beaten in front of the Second National Bank in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia


Tragic: Mr Kless grew up in New York but went to university in Pennsylvania, so he was familiar with the city

The suspects, who were in a car behind the cab, apparently thought Kless was yelling at them, according to police. Three of them got out and began beating Kless near the historic Second Bank of the United States.

The attack was the latest in a string of killings in the City of Brotherly Love, where there have been 20 homicides so far in 2012, up from 12 at the same point last year.



Mr Kless, a May 2010 graduate of Temple University who had studied risk management, had recently returned to the city to work at an insurance firm after spending time working in Harrisburg.


Police are looking for the three men who got out of the red or maroon 4-door sedan, as well as the driver who never left the vehicle and watched the entire incident unfold

The youngest of three brothers, Kless grew up in Warwick, N.Y., and spent his whole life there before going to college in Philadelphia, said his mother, Kendall Kless.

‘Kev was returning to Philly with this job and thrilled to be back among his friends,’ said Mrs Kless, who described her son as a very social person with a huge circle of friends, who have been offering condolences to the family. ‘It's what is holding us up right now.’

One of Kless' professors described him as a good student and a pleasant and easygoing person who was rising in his field.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/17/article-2088090-0F813E1F00000578-308_634x323.jpg
Altercation: Police believe the group of men beat him and left him when he fell to the ground, and he was only sent to the hospital hours afterwards and declared dead

‘He was a good, solid ambassador for our program,’ said R.B. Drennan, associate professor and chairman of Temple's Department of Risk, Insurance and Health Care Management. ‘He was well on his way.’

His mother said Kless, who had a knack for making people laugh, dreamt of making an impact on the world.

‘If anything has come from this that I didn't realize was how loved his was,’ she said. ‘He made everybody laugh. He made everybody happy.’

There are simply no answers to explain a killing that can only be described as senseless, Kless said.

‘There is no sense in it,’ she said. ‘There is nothing that makes sense about this.'

[Contra Mundum]

Update on Philly MLK Weekend Beating Murder of Kevin Kless: It Looks Like the Killers were Hispanics; $15,000 in Reward Money on the Table
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1EZzZZC3bXw/TxZJEDtJGlI/AAAAAAAAD6M/JiQIkFn3Un4/s400/PHILA%2Bkless%252C%2BKEVIN%2B2012%2B1-17.jpg

By Nicholas Stix

[Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

“White Man Beaten to Death in Philly on MLK Weekend—“by 3 Middle-Eastern Men”?]

Now, they’re calling the motive for the murder “an apparent misunderstanding.” Well, then why are the police looking to arrest the killers? If it was all a big “misunderstanding,” what’s the crime?



$15,000 reward offered in Phila. beating death
By Mike Newall
Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 10:39 a.m.
Philadelphia Inquirer

The city and the Fraternal Order of Police Tuesday announced rewards totaling $15,000 for information leading to the men who beat a recent Temple University graduate to death in Old City.

The city put up $10,000 for information in the attack that killed Kevin Kless, 23, early Saturday after an apparent misunderstanding over a hailed cab. The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, which represents Philadelphia police officers, pledged an additional $5,000.

Meanwhile, homicide investigators combed the neighborhood around Independence Hall for security footage that might have captured the attack or images of the car driven by four suspects, three of whom were involved in the assault, investigators said.

After additional interviews with witnesses, police also offered a somewhat changed description of the suspects. Initially, the men were described as being of either Middle Eastern or Indian descent. Tuesday, police said the suspects may be Hispanic.

One suspect was described as being about 20 years old, 5-foot-10, thin, and wearing a white shirt with blue stripes. Another suspect was described as being about 20, 6-feet tall, and wearing a maroon shirt. Little was known about the other two men.

It was just before 2:30 a.m. when Kless, his girlfriend, and another female friend tried catching a cab near Fourth and Chestnut Streets, police said.

The three friends had just left Lucy's Hat Shop Restaurant & Lounge a few blocks away. The street was clogged with taxis.

Kless flagged a cab whose lights were on, signaling it was free, and began talking with the driver, investigators said Tuesday.

The driver either already had people in the cab or did not want to travel the short distance Kless had requested, investigators said.

Kless then yelled something along the lines of "Turn off your f---ing light!" At the same time, police said, the four suspects pulled up a few cars down and called out to Kless' companions.

Two of the men in the car apparently thought Kless was yelling at them, jumped out, and rushed Kless without warning, investigators said. A third man from the car quickly joined the attack.

One of the assailants smashed Kless' head against a low stone wall near the Second Bank of the United States building, an investigator said. Kless never regained consciousness and died 17 hours later at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Police have recovered grainy footage of the car, believed to be an older model reddish or maroon four-door sedan, possibly a Mazda.

Detectives searched buildings from Front to Broad Street, between South and Market Streets, trying to track the path of the car and hoping for a clear image of it, investigators said. The three-day holiday weekend had slowed the search, since many buildings in the historic district were closed Monday.

Investigators continued to canvass Old City bars for patrons or employees who might have seen the attack.

Police reiterated their calls for the driver of the vehicle, who did not participate in the attack, to turn himself in to authorities. Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey has said that the District Attorney's Office might look more favorably on the driver if he worked with investigators.

"Right now, the best thing for the driver to do is to get himself to us before we come and find him," said Lt. Ray Evers, a police spokesman.

In his hometown of Warwick, N.Y., Kless' family and friends prepared for a weekend funeral service.

Kless, who graduated from Temple in 2010, had recently returned to Philadelphia after landing a job in the Philadelphia office of Marsh, a major insurance-brokering and risk-management company.

His friends have opened a Facebook page called "Justice for Kevin Kless," asking any witnesses to step forward.

Police said additional reward money from private donors was expected to be announced in the next few days.

[Aces High]

Niggers gonna Nig.

[Siberyak]

Niggers gonna Nig.

Beating a Vietnam vet? This country has no soul left. I wouldn't be surprised if someone vandalized the Arlington national cemetery or defaced the Washington monument.

[Siberyak]

Martin luther coon paved the way for this bullshit

[Scrapple]

Update on Philly MLK Weekend Beating Murder of Kevin Kless: It Looks Like the Killers were Hispanics; $15,000 in Reward Money on the Table

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/dncrime/Cops-three-men-charged-in-fatal-assault-.html?cmpid=124488469

[Queen of Swords]

“These animals are specializing on our elderly people out here and a gentleman who served our country,” Lt. George McClay said.

The Lt. got it right when he referred to the perpetrators as animals. I hope these unevolved animals get what's coming to them.

[LightInDarkness]

Feral creatures. Disgusting to say the least. I think we know who these "YOUFS" are.

[Siberyak]

Someone writing on the comments section on the newspaper article said " This is what happens when you stop funding overnight basketball programs" LOL

[LightInDarkness]

Someone writing on the comments section on the newspaper article said " This is what happens when you stop funding overnight basketball programs" LOL

ROFL XD

[Peyrol]

I thank God that my great-grandfather left Illinois in 1924.