The NYPD is searching for teenagers involved in a wild melee that erupted in Astoria Park last week. The brutal brawl was caught on video (below) by several teens with their cell phones, and uploaded to WorldstarHipHop, in keeping with the customs of our times. Now investigators are using the violent video in their hunt for the assailants, who whipped the two 14-year-old victims with belts, kicked her repeatedly, and threw a construction barrier at her.
The 14-year-old middle school student had been jumped by a crowd the day before, the Post reports, and her eighth grade who intervened on her behalf in Astoria Park tells the tabloid, "I didn’t want her to die. I did the best I could have done. I was beaten up by guys with weapons." She sustained bruising to her eye and face, while her friend needed eight stitches to close a gash on her face.
City Councilmember Peter Vallone alerted investigators with the 114th Precinct after friends pointed him to the video on Facebook. "There is no doubt in my mind the ring-leader will be brought to justice,” Vallone tells the Queens Chronicle. “This is not an after-school fight. This is a pretty vicious beating by a large group of older high school girls on two middle school girls. While it’s pathetic kids videotaped that sort of stuff, from a law enforcement standpoint it’s going to make finding the suspect much easier."
No arrests have been thus far, but in February three teenage girls were arrested after Gothamist published a video showing them forcing two younger girls to fight in a Bronx park.
