Local News

What We Know About the Hazelwood Fight That Hospitalized Kaylee Gain

Published

1 year ago

April 1, 2024

[ad_1]

Early last month, a video of a teen brutally beating 16-year-old Kaylee Gain and pounding her head against the pavement went viral, prompting nationwide outrage fueled by conservative social media accounts.

The video, shot near Hazelwood East High School, where Gain and her assailant are both students, appears to have been first widely circulated by the right-wing social media presence “Libs of TikTok” which is famous for its conspiracy theories and rage bait.

Now Gain’s assailant faces a hearing in juvenile court, police have referred eight others for possible charges in connection with the fight and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has launched an investigation into the school district. Gain remains hospitalized, though she is out of the intensive care unit.

Misinformation surrounding the fight is swirling and even Bailey has spewed incorrect facts about the incident. Here’s a round-up of what we know to be true.

A Brutal Beating

The fight occurred on March 8, after school hours and approximately a quarter mile from Hazelwood East, according to an attorney for the school district.

On March 10, Libs of TikTok posted a video of the fight to X saying: “GRAPHIC: A student in @HazelwoodSD is in the hospital in critical condition after being brutally beaten with her head smashed against the pavement by a mob of students. Multiple people watch and do nothing. You won’t hear about this story on the MSM” [Mainstream Media].

Despite the account’s claims, St. Louis media, including the Post-Dispatch, KSDK, and KMOV, soon covered the fight extensively.

The video opens with the two teenage girls appearing to square off against each other in a residential street. Quickly, though, the 15-year-old is on top of Gain, hands around her collar and repeatedly smashing her head into the street, as the RFT previously reported. The teen twitches and convulses on the street as several other peripheral brawls break out among the dozen or so young people around her.

The Aftermath — and the Catalyst

Gain suffered traumatic brain injuries in the beating and was in critical condition for more than a week. Her family posted an update to her GoFundMe on March 22 saying Gain is stable and was moved out of the ICU. An attorney for the family more recently told NBC News that she has no recollection of the fight and has limited speech. She cannot walk on her own, he said.

The day after the fight, 15-year-old Maurnice DeClue was arrested and charged with assault. Her family tells the St. Louis Post Dispatch that she is a “diligent and helpful” honor-roll student.

Since DeClue’s arrest, eight more teens have been referred to family court and may face charges in connection to the fight. The teens range in age from 14 to 17 years old. Four are male, and four are female.

It is unclear what led to the brawl.

However, KSDK reported recently that, according to DeClue’s lawyer, Gain had been suspended from school after a fight on March 7 — just one day before the beating that was captured on video. “She was suspended from school for fighting someone else,” attorney Greg Smith said of Gain. “And despite that, found her way back towards the neighborhood around the high school the following day at dismissal time.”

An attorney for Gain’s family confirmed the suspension.

DeClue’s family has stated that DeClue had no previous involvement with the juvenile justice system.

The 15-year-old was “described by her teachers as a diligent and helpful student who never caused any disruptions,” Tina DeClue told the Post-Dispatch.

A Political Fight

Libs of TikTok and other conservative social media presences (including Attorney General Bailey) have stated that the school’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion policies led to the incident.

Despite seemingly making her a martyr in an agenda to discredit DEI, in nearly every post about Gain Libs of TikTok spells her name wrong (it’s Kaylee, not Kailee).

“Hazelwood School District won an award for their DEI initiatives and have a history of discriminating against white people,” the account said in a post to X.

Part of what is fueling conservative outrage over the fight is that Gain is white and her assailant in the video is Black.

The account’s repeated tirades against Hazelwood’s DEI initiatives seem to have spurred Bailey to action and inspired his latest headline grab.

Bailey announced on March 22 that his office will be investigating how the Hazelwood School District’s “radical DEI programs resulted in such despicable safety failures.”

That’s even though, as the RFT’s Ryan Krull has reported, the only connection between the district’s DEI policies and the attack is St. Louis County police officers’ failures to cooperate with them. The district asked that officers working in the school complete 10 hours of DEI training. The Hazelwood, Florissant and St. Louis County police departments balked, and the school resource officer program at Hazelwood East has reportedly been on hold since.

Cindy Reeds Ormsby, attorney for the district, fact-checked Bailey with a scathing letter dated March 26. She pointed out that Bailey got the date, location and setting of the fight completely wrong and emphasized that it took place after school and off school property.

She notes that his idea of investigating this as a diversity, equity and inclusion matter is … an interesting choice.

“The Statement of Solidarity you refer to in your correspondence is not board policy. You have failed to identify a single ‘race-based policy’ that has led to the absence of [school resource officers] and how such policy was prioritized over student safety,” she writes.

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Local News

St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

[ad_2]

Source link