By Joe Johnson
A 14-year-old Athens boy reportedly was arrested Sunday night for allegedly being part of a group that beat up a man from Tennessee at an Athens motel and then stole the victim’s car.
According to an Athens-Clarke County police report, officers were dispatched just before 10 p.m. to investigate a report of a car being stolen in a robbery at the Howard Johnson located between West Broad Street and Sycamore Drive.
When officers arrived, the 40-year-old victim said he had been beaten up by “several subjects” who then stole his phone, wallet and car keys before driving way in his 2005 Lincoln MKZ sedan valued at $6,000, according to the police report.
Another officer who arrived at the scene was flagged down by the victim, who pointed at “three African-American subjects and yelling, ‘That’s them, that’s them,’” according to the report, which noted that the stolen vehicle apparently had just returned to the motel.
After the occupants got out of the car, the officer commanded them to stop, but only one of them complied.
That suspect refused to identify himself, and “was just cursing at me and the other officers every time we tried to speak with him, and stated that he was not going to tell me his name, or who he was with,” according to the report, which noted that the young suspect later gave his name, and said he was a 14-year-old resident of Spring Valley Road.
While the boy was in custody, police said they searched him and located $20 from the victim’s wallet, and the victim’s Venmo and debit cards, according to the report.
He was charged with robbery and auto theft.
Although police said the victim's entire face was swollen from the beating he received, he declined treatment by EMS.
Due to the seriousness of the charges, the state Department of Juvenile Justice placed a hold on the release of the young suspect, and instructed police to take him to the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office for transport to a Regional Youth Detention Center.