A Washington, D.C., courtroom erupted after a teenage girl charged in connection with the fatal beating of a 64-year-old disabled man last year attacked a deputy U.S. marshal during pretrial proceedings, authorities said.
During the July 19 hearing, the 13-year-old defendant allegedly sucker punched the officer, leading to her arrest and removal on a stretcher, according to Law and Crime.
Officials did not disclose further details about the violent incident.
Moments before the commotion, prosecutors accused the girl and two underage co-defendants of taking selfies after filming the attack that killed Reggie Brown on Oct. 17, 2023.
Brown, a frail man with physical disabilities who lived in Northwest D.C., was beaten to death allegedly by a group of young girls who chased him into an alley, where he was beaten mercilessly.
Before hitting the ground, Brown tried to escape by climbing a chain-link fence, but his attackers pulled him down and stomped his head into the pavement until he stopped moving, police said.
If that wasn’t enough, the suspects also pulled the man’s pants down around his ankles, removing his belt and beating him with it, according to previous reports.
The girls, barely old enough to be out alone, allegedly sauntered off into the night and celebrated themselves, leaving Brown in a pool of his own blood, police said.
Later, officers responded to the 6200 block of Georgia Avenue where they found Brown suffering from multiple blunt force injuries.
He died at the scene.
Following an investigation, police arrested three girls, all between the ages of 12 and 13.
During a court hearing in late March, police officials played video of the vicious attack, showing a man in a blue coat initially throwing Brown to the pavement before the other assailants pounced.
The 12-year-old recorded the beating on her cellphone, authorities said.
One of the young suspects told police that two of them did not want to take part in flogging, but was forced to after the unidentified man threatened to shoot them with a gun he flashed on his waist, but police have never confirmed whether Brown had a weapon.
Officials said previously that Brown was afflicted by severe health issues, including a metal plate in his head and only two fingers on each hand, rendering him powerless to defend himself.
One of the 13-year-old suspects was taken into custody on March 28, while a second 13-year-old and 12-year-old were apprehended the next day. None of the suspects had a criminal record at the time of Brown’s death.
The suspects have not been identified by authorities because they are underage, however, both 13-year-olds were formally charged with second-degree murder during their initial hearing on March 29, although they have not been charged as adults.
The 12-year-old girl faces charges after she was shot in the leg in an unrelated incident at her home in late March before she was arrested. The injury she sustained was non-life-threatening.
In another twist, all three girls lived in the same suburb of Northwest D.C. as the victim, but there was no indication they ever crossed paths before the night Brown was slain, police said.
On the night of Brown’s death, detectives came upon a man’s lifeless body in the middle of the night on Georgia Avenue.
An autopsy later determined Brown died as a result of a homicide, but no suspects emerged immediately despite video surveillance of the attack, which showed three girls kicking and stomping the defenseless man before walking away nonchalantly.
The two 13-year-old girls were remanded to a secure youth facility, while the 12-year-old girl was set to appear before the judge the day after she was wounded in a separate shooting.
Investigators said Brown’s attackers didn’t know him, leaving relatives struggling to make sense of the violence that claimed his life.
“My uncle really didn’t deserve this,” Brown’s niece told News4 in Washington earlier this year. “He was known in this community for years, so for this to happen where he lived for 64 [years] is insane. They have to be held accountable.”
Family members said Brown was a compassionate man who cared deeply about others and was always willing to help, even going so far as to give someone the shirt off his back.
“He was just a quiet, nice polite person. He didn’t bother anybody. That’s the type of person he was,” a close family friend told FOX 5 in Washington.
