CHICAGO (CBS/AP) Fenger High School honor student Albert Derrion's beating death was brutal. But the murder is made all the more painful for family and friends by the presence of a cell phone video which captures Derrion's final moments.
Photos: Derrion Albert Beating Death Video
Albert's grandfather Joshua Walker said he hasn't seen it and never will. "I don't think I'll ever watch it," Walker told CBS' The Early Show. "I wasn't there to protect my grandson so I'll never watch that tape."
Even the mother of one of the alleged killers refuses to see it, even though she has defended her son, Silvonus Shannon's, alleged role.
"Silvonus is not a bad kid," Tamaray Shannon told the Chicago Tribune. "He was protecting himself. Silvonus is not what they are making him out to be."
The cell phone footage, which has been distributed widely across the Web and television, clearly shows a group of teens viciously kicking and striking 16-year-old Albert with wooden planks. When Albert tries to get up he is hit again with wooden plank. Then a crowd of young men gathers around him, delivering vicious blows.
Albert was dragged away from the melee, but too much damage had been done. He died in the hospital.
As painful as the video is to watch, it has been a boon to investigators, who have now arrested who they believe are the four teens directly responsible for Albert's death.
Prosecutors charged Silvonus Shannon, 19, Eugene Riley, 18, Eric Carson, 16, and Eugene Bailey, 18, with first-degree murder, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office.
The violence stemmed from a shooting early Thursday morning involving two groups of students from different neighborhoods, said Simonton.
So disappointing that a fight leads to death. Unfortunately these Einsteins of the world had no ideal when giving someone a beat down, does have a limit! To beat someone to death is over the top. The extreme violence that is associated with most games is what fuels the passion for violence with our kids today... When is enough going to be enough? If its not the cowardly actions of a drive by shooting, now its this??? To be honest I don't think that these kids really grasp the true concepts of death. To make matters worse when they are going to be sentenced to 60 or 70 years in jail, and several will have a dumbfounded look on their face, "like what did I do to get this"?
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