Oct 10, 2009 3:01 pm US/Pacific
Woman Reveals More About Chicago Student Beating
Mother Says Her Son Was Intended Victim Before Melee
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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The mother of a 17-year-old youth describes the fatal street fight that killed Derrion Albert last month to CBS 2's Pamela Jones.
CBS
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Derrion Albert was beaten to death on Sept. 24, 2009. The beating grabbed national attention when amateur video of the beating was released on the web and local TV.
CBS
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Friends, family and fellow students gather outside Fenger High School to remember Derrion Albert, who was beaten to death on Sept. 24, 2009. The beating grabbed national attention when amateur video of the beating was released on the web and local TV.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
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Police patrol at a gathering outside Fenger High School to remember honor roll student Derrion Albert, 16, on Sept. 28, 2009 in Chicago, Illinois. Albert was beaten to death in a melee involving a group of youths on Sept. 24.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
A Chicago mother is speaking out about the fight that led to the death of 16-year-old honor student Derrion Albert.
The unidentified mother says that just before the first blows were struck, the would-be attackers zeroed in on her own son, CBS station WBBM-TV reports.
On Sept. 24, she says, her 17-year-old son was with Derrion when
a group attacked and killed the teen.
But she adds the melee began minutes before, when about five young men targeted her son first.
"Something could have happened to my son that day," the mother, who requested anonymity, told WBBM-TV.
She says the men initially approached blocks away from the community center where the infamous fight eventually occurred. The melee was captured on a cell phone video that was aired on television and the Internet.
Earlier, words were exchanged, she said, but the two sides spotted a police surveillance camera near 111th and Normal, so the groups moved near 11th and Stewart to get away from it.
"At that point, my son said all kind of boys started jumping out of cars," she said. "It was like a lot of them."
"Derrion was, like, in the middle, on the ground," she said. "Because when they chased some of them up, my son was like telling Derrion to get up. And I guess he couldn't get up."
Authorities say Derrion was walking by the scene when the fight broke out and did nothing to provoke his attackers. He was hit in the head with a piece of wood, then kicked and beaten. The Fenger High School student was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
She's been to the scene and has watched the cell phone video, too, and says mixed and sometimes conflicting reports of what happened forced her to speak out.
Her opinion? Fenger High School students and the surrounding community need a long-term commitment to healing.
"They don't need any more counseling," she said. "They need intervention. They need people that can relate to these kids."
She said parents also should be held responsible for the actions of their children.
To be fair, she said her child wasn't with her like he should have been.
He stayed home sick from school that day, then went out later.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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