Youths in St. Louis playing the knock-out game beat a gay man near the Galleria in St. Louis.
The victim has a broken nose, a sore jaw and a black eye.
The attackers were screaming “f*cking f*ggot” while they beat the gay man.
FOX2 reported:
A robbery victim attacked near the Galleria says he was targeted for the “knock-out” game in which gangs of teens strike someone until they are knocked unconscious.
22-year old Matthew McLeod of Crestwood had just left the Richmond Heights MetroLink station Thursday at 2:30 PM when a group of five teens approached him on the Galleria Parkway near the I-170 overpass. McLeod said he was struck by two of them once in the eye and nose and once on his jaw. Witnesses saw him fall down and called police.
McLeod said the teens cursed him for his sexual orientation before striking him.
Richmond Heights police were able to round up the 15 to 16-year olds and turn them over to juvenile authorities. The victim’s mother, Sue Lamartina-Virga said police told her the youths confessed to “playing the ‘knock-out king’ game” and targeting Matthew because he looked feminine.
Lamartina-Virga said she was not aware of the “knock-out” game until her son became a victim. She checked it out on the internet. “It was frightening what I read,” she said. “A gentleman was killed..an old man was killed. They target the small, the weaker and they travel in packs when they do it.”
The teens face second degree robbery charges, but the victim thinks they should be charged with assault and a hate crime. McLeod has a broken nose, a sore jaw and a black eye.
,,,Families with small children, retail workers and customers often walk the two blocks between the MetroLink station and the Galleria Shopping Center on Brentwood Blvd.
In April black teens in St. Louis playing the knock-out game murdered an elderly Vietnamese man as he was walking home from the grocery store.
