16-Year-Old Charged In Videotaped Gang Beating Of Girl In Brooklyn McDonald's
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A 16-year-old girl has been arrested and charged after a group of teens were caught on video pummeling another girl inside a Brooklyn McDonald's, according to police.
Aniah Ferguson has been charged as an adult with robbery and gang assault, police said.
As Ferguson was led out of the station by police, she appeared to be smirking and didn't say anything but "Oh wow," when she saw the cameras, CBS2's Weijia Jiang reported.
Family members at Ferguson's home did not comment.
Police said they were confident that many more arrests are on the way.
As CBS2's Alice Gainer reported, police said Ferguson was the aggressor and police are also still looking for five other girls between the ages of 15 and 18. They are offering a reward for information.
Police said they have identified the other girls, but it is now a matter of finding them and bringing them in to face charges.
"I'm giving $1,000 of my personal money to find every person that participated in the assault of these young persons, because it was a crime, and I'm not condoning criminal behavior," said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.
Ferguson has nine prior arrests, CBS2 has learned. Sources told 1010 WINS she has been arrested six times just since September, including one time for allegedly stabbing her teenage brother in the arm just last month and another time for allegedly beating her grandmother.
As CBS2's Dave Carlin reported this week, the vicious fight broke out at the fast food restaurant in Flatbush on Monday afternoon.
The video starts with the gang assault already underway with fists flying inside the McDonald's at 943 Flatbush Ave.
The target of the violence, a 15-year-old girl dressed in blue, gets no help from spectators, including some adults. Some spectators even climbed on table tops to get a better look as well as to record the fight as six to seven girls pummeled and kicked the victim, Carlin reported.
Many people took out their cellphones, but Carlin reported they were recording the fight rather than calling for help.
The scene was even more violent during the final two minutes of the video, as the victim is seen getting punched in the face and repeatedly kicked while on the floor.
Police had been searching for the suspect now in custody, who is allegedly seen in the video wearing a black hoodie, but later is seen in only a purple bra and jeans.
In the video, she is seen kicking the victim in the head.
There were so many teenagers inside the McDonald's that when someone flagged down a police officer after the fight, he had to call for backup to restore order, 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported.
The girls involved all attend nearby Erasmus Hall High School, D'Auria reported.
McDonald's franchisee Paul Goodman defended his employees' decision to call 911 rather than intervene themselves.
"We have a strict protocol for our employee safety to call 911; let professionals, NYPD, handle a situation like this," he said.
As of Thursday, the victim was back at home, where CBS2 was told she was banged up and did not want to speak about what happened. Police sources said the young victim and her mother were contacted by police investigators, but refused to cooperate with them.
Adams wants to expand after school programs to help combat the violence.
"We need to open our school buildings," Adams said.
Community activist Anthony Herbert said peer violence groups also need to be part of the solution.
"We have to identify where the resources are and make sure that we put them in the community so that these kids have something to do so they don't have to hang out at a McDonald's looking for recreation," he said.
Herbert told 1010 WINS reporter Carol D'Auria that he hopes that parents will use this as an opportunity to talk to their kids.
"They've got to monitor what they're kids are doing on social media. They've got to be abreast of what's happening. Because we have kids disappearing behind this kind of stupidity, now we've got them acting like animals," he said.