Photo courtesy of Twitter/ @BrendaHattisbu1
Two Texas teens face hate-crime charges as they terrorized a Black classmate outside of their Woodsboro High School on Halloween, per The Root.
As News Onyx previously reported, two 17-year-old teens, one white and the other Hispanic, dressed in KKK costumes, harassed and tased their 16-year-old classmate, who is black, while a White teenage girl filmed the incident on her cellphone.
According to Texas Monthly, the two students, Noel Garcia Jr. and Rance Bolcik, reportedly play on the same football team as the student they tased, and a video of the incident has been circulating throughout the high school.
The media outlet was able to obtain exclusive footage of the attack.
As the one-minute video begins, a young Black male is backpedaling through the grass and a figure in a white sheet is approaching him. The figure is wearing a droopy hood with a pointy top and holes cut out for eyes. “That’s not funny. Stop!” says the Black teenager, who is dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. He has a friend with him: a thin, young white male, who wanders in and out of the frame and occasionally tries to intervene.
The action is being filmed on a cellphone by a girl, who tells the Black kid, “If you say their names, they’re gonna tase you.” Then there’s the crackle of a stun gun being fired. “Get closer,” she says, and the gun is fired again. The Black young man keeps backing away.
“Surround him,” the girl says. “Surround him!” She giggles. Now a second figure in a white sheet and hood comes into the frame. In one hand, he’s holding a small purple device. A rapid-fire crackle rings out.
“Chill!” the Black teenager yells as the hooded figure with the purple device lunges for him, making a loud “Ah!” sound.
“KKK,” the girl announces.
“That’s not funny,” says the Black teen’s friend. The hooded figures ignore him.
“Wait,” says the girl to one of the white-sheeted figures, “get on this side of him.” Then, to the other: “Get on that side.” At that point, one of the figures approaches the young Black man, reaches toward him, and zaps him. “Ooh!” he calls out, recoiling, inspiring the girl to giggle even louder.
“Chill,” the Black teenager says again, now sounding agitated. “Chill!” He turns his back on his tormentors and begins walking away as the video, obtained exclusively by Texas Monthly, ends.
While the description of the attack is alarming, the Black student’s attorney, Matthew Manning, took to Facebook and addressed the teen attackers without holding anything back.
WOODSBORO INCIDENT INVOLVING TASING OF A BLACK TEENAGER BY KIDS DRESSED AS KLANSMEN
It’s my understanding that a young black teenage boy may’ve been tased, terrorized, and menaced by three kids dressed as Klansmen in or near Woodsboro, TX on Halloween night, as he was trick or treating.
If this is true, I’m incensed. If it’s not, I’m still incensed that this is the kind of thing that’s still totally plausible in 2021.
If you know anything about this incident, please let me know. I need to know what happened if anything.
The perpetrators had better hope I don’t get on this case because if I do, there will be legal hell to pay.
He also questioned why Garcia and Bolcik were allowed to play in a football game following the incident in the Facebook post.
Ronald D. Segers, Jr, principal of Woodboro High School, released a written statement regarding the incident, stating that he could not discipline the involved students because it did not happen on campus grounds.
According to KZTV, Manning and Jeremy Coleman, members of the Corpus Christi NAACP Chapter, held a press conference and called the incident a hate crime. Manning appeared to be outraged by the incident, saying it “can’t be analyzed as kids being kids” and must be seen as a “purposeful crime with the intent to terrorize a Black person.”
No charges are pending against the female student who accompanied Garcia and Bolcik.