Police in Newark, Delaware, are searching for two young boys suspected of repeatedly attacking a 12-year-old boy confined to a wheelchair, this time choking him and making off with his house key.
Investigators with the New Castle County Police Department say 12-year-old LeQuan Mackey was outside exercising in his wheelchair Monday afternoon when two suspects, as young as 12 years old, approached him from behind, a CBS affiliate in Philadelphia reported.
“These kids pushed me into a sewer grate thing and my wheel got stuck and he started punching me. And I put my hand up to block the punch and then he grabbed my lanyard, twisted it, put it back around my neck again and started to pull it,” LeQuan told the station.
LeQuan suffers from cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair after a recent leg operation. He was outside on Monday working to earn his Boys Scouts Physical Fitness badge.
“When I hear that somebody is doing something evil to my child, I get quite angry,” his father Paul Mackey told the station.
Investigators say the suspects assaulted the victim, stole a lanyard and house key from around the victim’s neck and fled the scene.
But further investigation revealed that the same two boys have been tormenting LeQuan for months.
He doesn’t know their names, but said the same two boys cornered him and punched him a few days earlier. One time they shut his fingers in a mailbox. And this time he was able to let out a scream.
“I’m thinking ’no, no I can’t let this happen’ and I started to scream and they ran off,” LeQuan told CBS.
Police are now looking for two juveniles believed to be 12 to 14 years old. They will be charged with robbery.
“It seems that they are targeting a kid that can’t fight back or a kid that can’t flee, and you know we consider them to be monsters,” New Castle County Police Officer Tracey Duffy told the station.
When asked why LeQuan thinks the teens are picking on him, he said, “I think they want me out of the neighborhood. I don’t know why. I don’t know what I did wrong,” a Fox affiliate reported.
“They can’t just go around hurting people. That’s not going to help you. You got to just leave us alone and try not to hurt people,” he told the station.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.