Re: A 19-Year-Old Was Left At A Hospital Barely Breathing After Spending Time At A Friend?s House, And The Community Is Calling For Justice

[The next mass shooter]

On 17 Mar 2022, PaxPerPoten <PaxPe...@magik.beanz.net> posted some
news:t10q3a$2ns68$3...@news.freedyn.de:

> The parents of these abusive kids need to be sterilized along with
> their filthy offspring.

On a recent school night in southeast Georgia, three teens pulled up to an
emergency room and told staff there was an individual in their white Jeep
Wrangler who needed medical attention after consuming a mix of alcohol and
antidepressants.

When hospital personnel opened the vehicle’s rear door, they found 19-
year-old Trenton Lehrkamp lying unresponsive in the back, his clothes
soaked in urine and his body covered in spray paint. Lehrkamp was
breathing just “six times per minute,” according to a police report about
the March 21 incident. His blood alcohol level was 0.464 — nearly six
times the legal limit for driving. As staff pulled Lehrkamp out of the
vehicle, the teens, who were all under the age of 18, repeatedly asked if
they were free to leave. After providing their names and phone numbers to
the hospital, they drove off. Lehrkamp was rushed to the ICU and placed on
a ventilator.

A few days later, disturbing images allegedly showing teens abusing
Lehrkamp began circulating on social media, sparking outrage in St. Simons
Island, the small coastal community that touts its unspoiled beaches and
Southern charm and where police say the incident leading to Lehrkamp’s
hospitalization occurred. One photo shows four boys standing over
Lehrkamp, who was passed out in a chair with his face covered, an orange
substance on his clothes, and a sluglike object on his lap. In a video, a
boy is seen spraying a water hose at Lehrkamp’s head as other teens look
on. Glynn County police have identified the juveniles in the photo and
video, served multiple search warrants, recovered electronic evidence, and
interviewed Lehrkamp, who is still receiving treatment as he recovers, as
well as other individuals involved, the department said. Yet as of Friday,
more than two weeks after the 19-year-old was left nearly lifeless at the
hospital, no arrests have been made.

“If we could just make a case off of one single photo or one single video
without getting any other type of evidence, then that would not be a
proper — that would not be a thorough investigation,” Glynn County Interim
Police Chief O’Neal Jackson said during a news conference last week. “We
can’t rush to judgment. We have to take our time on this, and that’s what
we’re doing.”

But the lack of accountability so far has raised suspicions among some
people in the community that the teens involved are getting special
treatment. Though police have not publicly confirmed the juveniles’
identities, a list of names allegedly linked to the incident has been
circulating on social media and includes kids from prominent St. Simons
families. And in the wake of the delayed arrests in the 2020 murder of
Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was shot to death while jogging
in nearby Brunswick, community members aren’t willing to stand by and wait
for the wheels of justice to turn.

“This was almost another murder,” Emily McCarthy, 43, who lives and owns a
business on the island, told BuzzFeed News. “I don’t think we have a
single shred of patience left for waiting on justice.”

An aerial view of the St. Simons Island lighthouse in Georgia
An aerial view of the St. Simons Island lighthouse in Georgia

Wirestock / Getty Images / iStockphoto
At the hospital on March 21, Lehrkamp’s father, Mark Lehrkamp, told police
that his son had been at a friend’s, whose name was redacted from the
report, and that this was not the first time he returned from the friend’s
house with injuries. Four days prior, Trenton came home covered in WD-40,
vomit, paint, glue, egg yolk, and spray paint, his father said. And two
weeks before that, he had to take his son to the ER to get stitches for a
laceration above his left eye.

“He never returns home normal,” Mark said, according to the report.

He told police his son would go to that person’s house because he had no
other friends, and when he was there, he thought he was accepted and with
people who liked him. Mark said he believed his son might feel that they
look up to him because they were younger, according to the report. But for
the same reason, Mark didn’t think his son would fight back or “defend
himself” against those kids, because he knew he could get in trouble for
hurting them.

According to the report, Mark has other photos and videos of previous
incidents in which his son came home from the friend’s house “hurt or
covered in objects,” as well as evidence that he was at that residence the
night he was dropped off at the hospital. Trenton’s sister also provided
police with a picture of a Snapchat message she received that night,
saying, “Nigga Omg I know you’re sick of hearing it but like I wasn’t
there but like Trenton is fucking dying apparently.”

She also gave police a voice message she received while she was on her way
to the hospital from someone “stating what had happened to Trenton and
that [REDACTED] had told [REDACTED] what they did.”

A representative for Lehrkamp’s family declined to talk to BuzzFeed News
but said they are cooperating with the investigation and “trusting the
process.” A GoFundMe page set up for the family accuses the juveniles
involved in the March 21 incident of torture and assault, saying that the
abuse went on “for hours.” When he was left at the hospital, Lehrkamp was
“deemed inconclusive to life” and battled fevers and a lung infection,
according to the page. He’s now breathing on his own and receiving
treatment at an out-of-state facility.

“I’m alive and doing well, and I’m recovering,” Lehrkamp said in an audio
message shared with local reporters earlier this week. “Just know it’s
going to be a long time for me to get over this, through the trauma. But
one day, hopefully within the next few months or so, I might be back. But
justice will be served.”

Trenton Lehrkamp (right) is pictured with his sister and father as they
travel to the out-of-state facility where he will continue his recovery.
Trenton Lehrkamp (right) is pictured with his sister and father as they
travel to the out-of-state facility where he will continue his recovery.

Courtesy Lehrkamp family
In the absence of arrests and additional information from police about
what happened the night Lehrkamp ended up at the hospital, rumors have
been running wild among locals and on social media. Many believed that the
teens had defecated on Lehrkamp. Included on the list of names allegedly
linked to the incident was the child of a Glenn County police officer. And
for days, community members believed that Lehrkamp was autistic. In a
statement on Monday, Jackson, the interim police chief, dispelled those
and other rumors, warning that misinformation “delays and hampers the
investigation.”

Whether the teens involved are still in school has also been unclear. In a
message sent to families last week, Glynn County Schools acknowledged that
several students in the district may have been involved and that state law
allows students to be disciplined for off-campus conduct that “makes the
student’s continued presence at school a potential danger … or which
disrupts the educational process.” However, the statement didn’t say
whether the district has taken any action in reference to that statute.

A spokesperson for the district declined to answer BuzzFeed News’
questions.

McCarthy, whose stepson is a junior at Glynn Academy — the high school
attended by those believed to be involved — said it’s been frustrating to
get little to no information from the district about the students’ current
status at the school.

“Can you imagine being in a class with one of those kids or being a
teacher in a class with one of those kids?” she said. “I don’t feel
comfortable having them in a school where my stepson has a history of
being bullied and they’re at that same school.”

To McCarthy and other community members who spoke to BuzzFeed News, it
feels like Glynn County police, the department that first investigated
Arbery’s killing, is protecting the teens in the same way that they
shielded Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael, and William Bryan Jr. — the men
who chased down and murdered Arbery. Cellphone video of the Feb. 23, 2020,
incident showed the McMichaels shoot and kill Arbery as he was out for a
run, but it wasn’t until after the video became public three months later
and state investigators stepped in that the men were even arrested. (They
were ultimately convicted of both murder and federal hate crimes and
sentenced to life in prison.)

“That’s like a flashback to me, because it took 74 days before arrests was
made in my nephew’s case,” Carla Arbery, an aunt of Ahmaud Arbery, told
BuzzFeed News. “Social media’s so lit with everything that’s involving
these young people and what happened to Trent. It shouldn’t take that long
… for Trent to get some justice.”

Arbery, 53, said she agreed with one demonstrator who said during a recent
rally for Lehrkamp on St. Simons that if the teens involved were Black,
then they would have been arrested immediately.

“It wouldn’t have been days behind, weeks later,” Arbery said. “As soon as
they seen that video they would have been, ‘OK, let’s go pick them up.
Juvenile detention, here they come.’”

Residents of St. Simons Island march in support of&nbsp;Lehrkamp.
Residents of St. Simons Island march in support of Lehrkamp.

NBC / WSAV3 / Via youtube.com
Cynthia Sykes, who went to school with Lehrkamp, told BuzzFeed News it
doesn’t make sense to her that the police don’t have enough information to
make an arrest at this point.

“You see people around here be arrested for much much less, without photo
and video evidence,” said Sykes, 19, of Brunswick. “They’re going to
present us with the same exact information that we already know when they
do come down to making their arrests, so why are they allowed to be out
living their life when Trent is having to go through rehabilitation?”

BuzzFeed News attempted to reach the families of five teens whose names
are included on the list of those believed to be involved in the alleged
abuse, including the Strother family, whose house was named by WSAV as the
residence where at least one incident took place. The family owns and
operates J.C. Strother Company, a longtime hardware store and lumber yard
in the island’s popular Pier Village district. When reached by phone at
the store, a relative read the following statement: “Strother Hardware
would like to express our sincere sorrow over the recent events in our
community. Our prayers are with everyone during this difficult time.”

Theawanza Brooks, another aunt of Ahmaud Arbery, said she believes what
has happened — and what hasn’t happened — so far in this case fits a
pattern she’s seen with how the criminal justice system doesn’t actually
work for people who have experienced an injustice.

“I feel like Trent is facing an injustice here even though it’s not
considered police brutality or anything like that,” said Brooks, 38, who
has been organizing demonstrations in support of Lehrkamp. “His humanity,
his rights, all of that was violated.”

She said she was particularly troubled that the March 21 incident was not
the first time that Lehrkamp was allegedly abused at the friend’s house.

“I’ve learned in our community and with these officials that as long as we
don’t see it … then nobody knows, so it can be swept under the rug,”
Brooks said. “But when we see it, that’s when they respond.”

Community members have also criticized the police department for not
making any mention of the incident to the public until the images of the
alleged abuse started making the rounds on social media several days after
the police investigation began. At the news conference last week, Jackson
said authorities did not release any information initially “out of respect
for the victim’s privacy,” adding that they believed it was an isolated
incident and that there was no public threat. Still, even he acknowledged
that if Lehrkamp hadn’t ended up at the hospital that night, the incidents
may not have ever been reported.

“It’s a sad and misfortunate event,” Jackson said. “I want the rest of
America … to understand that we, the citizens of Glynn County, are mostly
very good people, hardworking people. This is an isolated incident, and
don’t judge Glynn County by one group of juvenile teens.”

But the lack of arrests or charges more than two weeks later sure does
make the police department and the district attorney’s office “look like
fools again,” McCarthy said.

“I am hoping that the reason this is taking so long is that they are doing
the world’s greatest investigation … and that’s why there have not been
arrests,” she said.

At this point, McCarthy believes the teens will ultimately be held
accountable because of all the outrage in the community, and because the
district attorney accused of mishandling the Arbery case is no longer in
office.

Others are worried Lehrkamp’s case could still easily be willfully
ignored.

“If that is the case, we will continue to protest,” Sykes said, “and we’ll
take it wherever we need to take it to in order to get this situation
taken care of.”

She added, “Like we seen with Ahmaud, his family had to fight to the death
in order to get arrests made, and we’re seeing the same thing happening
with Trent where the community’s having to come together.”

Sykes was among the hundreds who showed up for a prayer vigil outside the
hospital where Lehrkamp was treated, and she also joined last weekend’s
protest on the island. She said she's proud that the community has stepped
up to rally around Lehrkamp and hopes that the support has comforted her
former classmate in a big way.

“A lot of Glynn County has been losing sleep over this,” she said. “This
boy has more family and friends than he could have ever imagined at this
point.” ?

<https://news.yahoo.com/19-old-left-hospital-barely-150028963.html>