Charles Young of Milwaukee was laid to rest at Holy Redeemer Institutional Church Monday, eight days after being chased down and beaten by a mob of bat-and shovel-wielding youths as young as 10 years old.
Nearly 200 attended Young’s funeral.
Young passed away last Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 2, after being on life-support equipment since the attack Sunday, Sept. 30.
He was 36.
Milwaukee police said 18 people are in custody in connection with the beating, including the 10-year-old child and a 32 year-old man.
The latest suspects taken into custody, Jermeral Andrews, 16, and Lazar McNeil, 15, were charged in adult court Oct. 7 with first-degree reckless homicide.
Arteias Shanks, 13, one of seven youths charged last week, was charged with first-degree reckless homicide as an adult and could face a 40-year prison term.
The 10-year-old child was charged with second-degree reckless homicide in children’s court, where he now could face a two-year sentence at a juvenile prison.
Young, himself a convicted felon, punched a 13-year-old boy in the mouth, knocking out a tooth, after one of a group of boys threw an egg at Young.
Accruing other youngsters from the neighborhood and growing to a group of about 16, the boys attacked Young, who ran to a neighbor’s house in seek of help.
At one point, Young hid in a bush, but the mob found him and chased him to a house, where he sought safety before the group pulled him onto the porch and continued beating him.
Young was hit 50 or 60 times, according to the Milwaukee Police Department’s report. The autopsy states the cause of Young’s death to be blunt-force trauma to the head.
A native of Milwaukee, Young had a history of trouble with the law. He dropped out of high school in the 10th grade and had served multiple stints in prison by his 20s, on convictions of armed robbery, burglary and marijuana possession, according to the Associated Press.
“The message is sorrow,” District Attorney E. Michael McCann told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Sorrow for everybody, for the deceased, for the boys, for the community ? these young men have written off their futures for decades.”
The father of the 10-year-old child charged with reckless homicide spoke out against charging the youths prior to his son’s hearing last Thursday.
“They got this thing all fouled up,” the boy’s father said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “They’re making a butcher out of a 10-year-old boy and a group of boys ? kids are going to be kids.”
