Thread: Pack of teens beats white man to death near Ferguson, but protests sparse

Pack of teens beats man to death near Ferguson, but protests sparse

Published December 01, 2014 FoxNews.com

Police say Zemir Begic, 32, was beaten with hammers by a group of teens at an intersection in St. Louis early Sunday morning. (GoFundMe)


Zemir Begic was a teenager when he and his family fled Bosnia in the aftermath of a bloody civil war. In America, he found work, friends and love before a pack of thugs beat him to death with hammers on a city street in St. Louis early Sunday.

The horrific attack occurred in southwest St. Louis, just 20 miles from Ferguson, where a police shooting of a black man and a grand jury's subsequent decision not to indict the officer sparked violent riots. Police have arrested three teens and are looking for one or possibly two more in the brutal murder of Begic, 32. The married immigrant who was driving his car when the teens approached at a traffic light and began striking it with hammers, prompting him to get out and confront them, according to police.

“We come from Bosnia because we were getting killed and our homes and families were getting destroyed,” Denisa Begic, his 23-year-old sister, of Sioux Falls, S.D, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Never in my life did I think he would get murdered.”

Although the victim was white and the suspects black and Hispanic, police said it does not appear to have been a hate crime.

"Investigators don't believe the incident is in any way related to Ferguson," St. Louis Police spokeswoman Schron Jackson told FoxNews.com. "The incident is not being investigated as a hate crime."

Several hours after Begic died at an area hospital, members of the city's close-knit Bosnian community held protests that seemed patterned after those sparked in Ferguson by the death of Michael Brown and the decision not to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson.

“We’re going to have a little bit of fun blocking our own traffic,” Adnan Esmerovic, 27, told the Washington Post. “In Ferguson, they want to make a protest about nothing and yet that attracted attention across the nation.

We’re just trying to keep more police down here because of these little thugs.”

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson addressed protesters Sunday and pledged to crack down on crime in the area, but denied that Begic was killed because of his ethnicity.

“There is no indication that the gentleman last night was targeted because he was Bosnian,” Dotson said, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“There’s no indication that they knew each other.”

Police said Begic was hit in the head, face, mouth and body early Sunday morning around 1:15 a.m. at an intersection in southwest St. Louis and left to die on the street. Suad Nuranjkovic, 49, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he and Begic were heading home from a bar on Gravois Avenue when the teens began banging on the car.

Nuranjkovic said he got out of the passenger seat of the car and hid in a nearby parking lot during the attack.

“I was afraid that if one of them had a gun, they were going to shoot me, so I didn’t know what to do,” he told the newspaper.

Unlike the incident in Ferguson, the killing prompted members of St. Louis’ Bosnian community to call for a greater police presence.

“We’re just angry because we’re trying to protect our community,” said Mirza Nukic, 29, who was among 50 people who briefly blocked the intersection where Begic was killed.

Seldin Dzananovic, 24, said the teens with the hammers confronted him farther north on Gravois Ave about an hour before the attack on Begic, but he was able to fight them off, only suffering cuts to the hands and neck.

Begic and his family arrived in the United States from Bosnia in 1996, first moving to Utica, N.Y., before living in Iowa and Phoenix. He moved to St. Louis months ago to marry a woman whose family lives there.

Those who knew Begic said singing was his passion and that he “loved America.”

Denisa Begic said Zemir’s funeral would be in Iowa. A crowd-funding site has been set up to help finance the funeral. As of midday Monday, nearly $10,000 has been raised. On the page, his grieving sister wrote of her love for her brother.

"I will forever have a big piece of my heart destroyed," Denisa Begic wrote. "My big brother is gone, never coming back to us. [I] wish this was a terrible dream. He was a great brother, son, husband and helped anyone. I want my brother back. He always protected me."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/12/01...cmp=latestnews

St. Louis: Juveniles Of No Description Beat Bosnian Immigrant To Death In The Street With Hammers

8:57 AM 12/01/2014
JIM TREACHER
Contributor

Do #BosnianLivesMatter?

Here’s a local news story that has nothing to do with anything. It’s a completely isolated incident, and don’t you forget it, racist.
KMOV-TV in St. Louis:

The violent death of a 32-year-old Bosnian man beaten to death with a hammer by a group of teens sparked a spontaneous protest in the Bosnian community where demonstrators blocked traffic at Gravois and Itaska Sunday night in south St. Louis.

Zemir Begic, 32, was found unconscious with apparent injuries to his head, abdomen, face and mouth in the 4200 block of Itaska at 1:15 a.m. Police say Begic was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced deceased…

According to police, Begic was in his vehicle when “several juveniles” approached his car and began damaging it. When Begic exited his vehicle the teenagers yelled and struck him with hammers.

If Barack Obama had a son, well… never mind.

R.I.P Zemir Begic 1981-2014. The Bosnian community weeps.#JusticeForZemir pic.twitter.com/a9nLo0ZJFP
— BHDragons (@BH_Dragons) December 1, 2014

To recap: Last August in a suburb of St. Louis, a 6’4″, 300-pound man robbed a convenience store and assaulted the clerk. Then he walked down the middle of the street in traffic, refused a lawful order from a police officer, attacked the police officer, and was shot and killed.

Then, a bunch of racebaiters who make their living by turning people against each other swooped in, told a bunch of lies, and convinced a whole lot of suckers that the facts and evidence are secondary to their self-pity.

As a result, a lot of moronic and inflammatory rhetoric is flying around, at least a dozen stores in that area have been destroyed, and now a guy who had nothing to do with any of it has been beaten to death in the damn street by “several juveniles” with hammers.
Nothing to see here.

(Hat tip: Twitchy)

Update: Listen carefully to what they tell you. Listen even more carefully to what they don’t.

"There’s no indication #ZemirBegic was targeted for being Bosnian." The juveniles didn't ask for a passport before KILLING HIM WITH HAMMERS?

http://dailycaller.com/2014/12/01/st...vD=1248,266799

Really, how stupid do they think people are? It sounds as though they had their hammers ready for whoever they could bludgeon and were looking for a victim

Fatal hammer attack on Bosnian immigrant not racially motivated, St. Louis police say





Watch the video at the link

4 hours ago • By Joel Currier and Christine Byers



UPDATED at 4:25 p.m. with charges

ST. LOUIS • A 17-year-old St. Louis man has been charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the bludgeoning death of a Bosnian immigrant.

Police say Robert Mitchell along with two other teens, both juveniles, attacked the 32-year-old man with hammers early Sunday. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

A police spokeswoman said investigators do not believe race played a role in the bludgeoning death of a Bosnian immigrant early Sunday, but declined to say what authorities believe is the motive in the killing.

Many at the scene of the murder near Gravois Avenue and Itaska Street speculated that the four men who beat Zemir Begic, 32, to death with hammers targeted him because of his Bosnian descent.

But detectives do not believe Begic's Bosnian heritage or the color of his skin served as a motive in any way, police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said.

Witnesses told police that the victim and the suspect exchanged some words as Begic was walking past them on the way to his car, Jackson said.

Someone then hit Begic's car with something or kicked it, and Begic stopped his car, got out and exchanged words with the suspects once more. That's when he was attacked, Jackson said.

"We think it was wrong place, wrong time," Jackson said.

Homicide detectives do not believe the suspects took anything from the victim during the attack.

Jackson said Chief Sam Dotson noted that none of the suspects appear to have anything in their criminal backgrounds to suggest they would do something of this magnitude.

Dotson said more than one hammer was used in the killing, but he would not say how many.

Police have three of the four suspects in custody. Detectives believe they know who the fourth is, but have not yet made an arrest, Jackson said.

Police arrested two suspects, ages 15 and 16 Sunday. One is Hispanic and the other is black, according to police. Mitchell turned himself into police Sunday night.

Earlier story:

St. Louis Bosnians outraged about a deadly hammer attack in the city’s Bevo Mill neighborhood spilled into the streets Sunday night to voice frustrations over violence touching their community.

“We’re just angry because we’re trying to protect our community,” said Mirza Nukic, 29, of St. Louis. “We’re just trying to be peaceful.”

Nukic was among at least 50 people, mostly, if not all Bosnians, who briefly blocked Gravois Avenue at Itaska Street on Sunday night to protest the killing. The intersection was near where Zemir Begic, a Bosnian man who moved to St. Louis this year, was attacked by at least three teens with hammers early Sunday.

Police said Begic was in his vehicle about 1:15 a.m. in the 4200 block of Itaska when several juveniles approached and began damaging his car. Police said Begic got out to confront the juveniles, who began yelling at him and hitting him with hammers.
Begic, 32, who lived in the 4200 block of Miami Street, suffered injuries to his head, abdomen, face and mouth. He died at St. Louis University Hospital.

Some of the demonstrators recalled other recent Bosnian victims of violence, including Haris Gogic, 19, who was fatally shot in May 2013 by a robber in his family’s Bevo Mill convenience store.

St. Louis police Chief Sam Dotson spoke with residents at the street protest Sunday night. He said he was sorry about what happened and sought to reassure people the killing did not appear motivated by race or ethnicity.

“There is no indication that the gentleman last night was targeted because he was Bosnian,” Dotson said. “There’s no indication that they knew each other.”

Dotson said Sunday evening that police have two male juveniles, ages 15 and 16, in custody. A third male, 17, was taken into custody late Sunday night.

Dotson also promised to increase day and night foot patrols in the area.

“The whole idea of standing out in the street is to get our attention,” Dotson told residents. “You got my attention. You absolutely did.”

Suad Nuranjkovic, 49, who attended Sunday night’s protest, said he and Begic were heading home from a bar on Gravois Avenue. Begic was driving and Nuranjkovic was in the passenger seat when a group of at least five teens started banging on the car. Nuranjkovic said he got out of the car and hid in a parking lot across the street during the attack.

“I was afraid that if one of them had a gun, they were going to shoot me, so I didn’t know what to do,” he said.
Nuranjkovic said the attack has made him fearful to live in his own neighborhood.

“The picture is in my head, what I saw,” he said. “I don’t know why this is happening to Bosnians. We could go around and shoot people, too, but we just want peace.”

Seldin Dzananovic, 24, said the teens with the hammers approached him farther north on Gravois about an hour before the attack on Begic. He said he was able to fight them off, suffering only cuts to his hands and neck.

“I’m just lucky,” he said. “God is on my side.”

Begic and his family came to the United States from Bosnia in 1996, moving first to Utica, N.Y., before settling in Waterloo, Iowa, said his sister, Denisa Begic. She said he moved to Phoenix, where he worked as a moving truck driver before returning briefly to Iowa. He moved to St. Louis several months ago and married a woman, Arijana, whose family lives in St. Louis.

Singing was one of his passions, and he often performed in public.

“He loved America,” said Denisa Begic, 23, of Sioux Falls, S.D. “We come from Bosnia because we were getting killed and our homes and families were getting destroyed. Never in my life did I think he would get murdered.”

She said she knows some Bosnians are upset over her brother’s death because they believe the suspects, who are black and Hispanic, targeted Begic because he was Bosnian. She said she wants people to know her brother would not have judged them because of their race; he had friends of many racial and ethnic backgrounds.

“He loved everybody,” she said. “I don’t know what to think of it. It’s so wrong what they did. They didn’t just hurt Zemir’s family. They also hurt their own family because I’m pretty sure their moms will never see them again.”
Denisa Begic said her brother’s funeral would be in Iowa, and that a fundraising site has been set up to help with funeral expenses.

“I hope justice is served for my brother because he didn’t deserve this at all,” she said.

Denise Hollinshed of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/c...91f666084.html

St. Louis Police Chief lied. Perps screamed “kill the white people” before murder


St. Louis police Chief Sam Dotson (@ChiefSLMPD) claimed that when black teenagers attacked three white people with hammers, killing one, it was not motivated by “race of ethnicity.”

A witnesses says the perps were screaming “kill the white people” and “f$%ck the white” people right before the attack.

Dotson is on video telling protesters “there was no evidence to indicate the victim was chosen because he was Bosnian.” This was an insulting and disingenuous statement. The killers would not have cared if he was Bosnia, German, or Irish, only that he was white.

Later in the evening the St. Louis Post-Dispatch quoted the chief as denying that the murder was motivated by “race or ethnicity.”

So there was specific evidence that the hammer attacks were racially motivated and Dotson simply lied about it.
St. Louis PD was able to arrest two of the perps quickly because of eyewitnesses. Police would have known what the perps were screaming from interviewing witnesses. Chief Sam Dotson knew this when he insulted our intelligence claiming the attacks were not racially motivated.

This video was taken of the aftermath of the attack and includes commentary by a witness.

Caution Language.


For more details on the story, click here.

Blacks teens with hammers attacked three white people total (one died)



Late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, a group of four or five black teens attacked three random white people, killing one of them.

Police say one of the perps may have been Latino.

The attacks occurred near Bevo Mills, which is home to one of the largest Bosniak communities in the United States. All three victims are Bosniaks.

Suad Nuranjkovic, 49 and Zemir Begic, 32 were in their car when the black teenagers surrounded the vehicle and began hitting it. Begic got out of the car and was horrifically murdered. Police say he was hit in the face, head, mouth, and abdomen with at least two different hammers. Nuranjkovic fled on foot and got away.

A third victim Seldin Dzananovic, 24 was attacked one hour earlier. He fought off his attackers and survived with only minor cuts.

Sunday Evening, over fifty members of the Bosnian community protested at the scene of the murder. Police shut down a section of Gravois Ave.

However, the media is still censoring the crimes. Almost all media reports are censoring the race of the perpetrators. St. Louis police Chief Sam Dotson (@ChiefSLMPD) blatantly insulted the intelligence of the public, by proclaiming that the attacks were not racially motivated. Chief Sam Dotson expects us to believe that a groups of black males with hammers attacked people completely at random with disregard for what race they are, and it was just a coincidence that they were all three white people!

Dotson is even seen, on video telling, telling Bosnian protesters “he wasn’t killed because he is Bosnia.” This is one of the most asinine and disingenuous comments we have ever heard a police chief say. As if the black teenagers could really tell the difference between a Bosnia and an Irishman. The victims were attacked because they are white.
If the races had been reversed, this would be the single biggest news story in the Western world right now. Instead, local media is censoring their coverage and national media is ignoring it.

National organizations, like the Nation of Islam, are encouraging blacks males to commit racial violence in Ferguson.

In May of 2013, 19 year old Bosniak Haris Gogic was slaughtered by black males while he worked in a Bevo Mills convenience store.

<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
http://topconservativenews.com/2014/...otal-one-died/

• 
  
• LEADERS OF THE LARGE Bosnian community in St. Louis are stunned that just days after five teens jumped Zemir Begic — a 32-year-old Bosnian immigrant who was driving with his fiancee, Arijana Mujkanovic — and beat him to death with hammers, the vicious attack isn't being investigated as a hate crime, and wonder why there's little outrage outside their community, as there was 20 miles away in Ferguson.

• FLASHBACK: Pack of teens beats man to death near Ferguson, but protests sparse
• St. Louis Rams, police squabble over apology | KURTZ: Possible to move past Ferguson?

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

• 
• LEADERS OF THE LARGE Bosnian community in St. Louis are stunned that just days after five teens jumped Zemir Begic — a 32-year-old Bosnian immigrant who was driving with his fiancee, Arijana Mujkanovic — and beat him to death with hammers, the vicious attack isn't being investigated as a hate crime, and wonder why there's little outrage outside their community, as there was 20 miles away in Ferguson.

• FLASHBACK: Pack of teens beats man to death near Ferguson, but protests sparse
• St. Louis Rams, police squabble over apology | KURTZ: Possible to move past Ferguson?

Here's one right here!!!! Outrageous Outrage!

St. Louis’ Bosnian community sees hammer murder as hate crime

By Cristina Corbin
Published December 02, 2014 FoxNews.com

Zemir Begic died protecting fiancee Arijana Mujkanovic, when hammer-wielding teens allegedly attacked them on a city street. (Facebook)


Insistence by St. Louis officials that the beating death of a Bosnian man was not a hate crime is being met with skepticism and anger, according to leaders of the city's 70,000-strong Bosnian community, and the victim's brother is calling on authorities to "investigate every possible motive."

Zemir Begic, a 32-year-old man who emigrated from war-torn Bosnia almost two decades ago in search of a better life, was bludgeoned to death Sunday, allegedly by a group of hammer-wielding teenagers, one of whom has been charged as an adult. Begic was driving with his fiancee, Arijana Mujkanovic, and a male passenger at about 1:15 a.m. Sunday in St. Louis when five teenagers began pounding his vehicle with a hammer, according to police. When Begic confronted them, he was struck in the mouth, face, head and body with hammers and died at a nearby hospital.

"Zemir was a good person who would have given you the clothes off his back," his 20-year-old brother, Rasim Begic, told FoxNews.com Tuesday.

"He never had any problems with anyone."

"He was my role model and a hero," the younger Begic said of his brother, noting that he pushed his fiancee out of harm's way during the attack.

"Bosnians right now have an impression that this was a hate crime."

- Sadik Kukic, president of St. Louis' Bosnian chamber of commerce

The murder early Sunday of Begic has sparked protests, some consciously patterned after those taking place just 20 miles away in Ferguson, where the police shooting of a black man and a subsequent grand jury decision not to indict a police officer prompted racial anger and a federal civil rights probe.

But the St. Louis Police Department and Mayor Francis Slay are insisting Begic’s death, allegedly at the hands of black and Latino teenagers, was not based on racial or ethnic hate.

"Investigators do not believe the attack on Mr. Begic had any connection to him being of Bosnian descent," St. Louis Police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said in a statement. In subsequent emails, Jackson made clear: "Investigators don't believe the incident is in any way related to Ferguson" and "The incident is not being investigated as a hate crime."

No evidence has been released suggesting that the murder was racially motivated.

But a string of previous crimes involving poor minorities and Bosnians in a tough area on the southwest side of the city has many in the Bosnian community questioning whether Begic's death was racially motivated.

"Bosnians right now have an impression that this was a hate crime," said Bosnian Chamber of Commerce president Sadik Kukic, who met Monday with the city's mayor and police chief to discuss the murder.

"We don't know if it's a hate crime," Kukic cautioned, though he claims there have been several racially-charged crimes against his community, including last year’s murder of a Bosnian convenience store clerk.

Related Image

Expand / Contract
One of the suspects, 17-year-old Robert Mitchell, has been charged with first-degree murder.


According to a criminal complaint released Tuesday, Begic and his fiancee were walking to their car when they heard a group, including at least of the defendants, yelling. As Begic drove away, one of the teenagers, "jumped on the back of his car and began hitting it," the complaint said. Unsure of what was happening, Begic stepped out of his vehicle and was approached by the individuals, one of whom "taunted" him and "challenged him to a fight," according to the document. Begic was then allegedly assaulted by four men and struck with a hammer and fell to the ground. Three others continue to beat him before the group fled on foot, police said.

Robert Joseph Mitchell, 17, has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in early morning attack. Two others, ages 15 and 16, are in custody, and a fourth suspect remains at large, according to police.

Kukic said hundreds of protesters rallied the past two nights in the Little Bosnia neighborhood in response to Begic's killing, with many chanting "Bosnian lives matter" -- an echo of the "Black lives matter" chant heard in Ferguson after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer.

Zemir Begic was a teenager when he and his family fled Bosnia in the aftermath of a bloody civil war. In America, he found work, friends and love before meeting a cruel fate, his family said.

"We were all born in Bosnia and we came here in 1996," Rasim Begic said of Zemir and two other siblings. "We came to America thinking it was going to be a better life. Our family and friends were being killed over there."

"He loved every race," Rasim Begic said of his older brother, a karate instructor who will be buried in Waterloo, Iowa, where some of his family lives. "He had friends all over the world."

"He loved kids. He loved music," Begic said. "Our family will never be the same."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/12/02...as-hate-crime/