Police arrest 4 in videotaped assaults posted on YouTube

MINNEAPOLIS -- St. Paul and Minneapolis police have arrested four people in connection with a range of assaults that were videotaped and briefly posted on YouTube.

Sgt. Paul Schnell of the St. Paul Police Department told KARE 11 that one 19-year-old man and one 17-year-old boy were taken into custody late Tuesday. They haven't been charged, and police were pursuing additional suspects.

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Sgt. Jesse Garcia of the Minneapolis Police Department also confirmed the arrest of two other people allegedly connected to the crimes.

The video posted on YouTube shows a group of young men attacking bicyclists, pedestrians and children.  The video has since been removed from YouTube's Web site. 

Also on Wednesday, one of the alleged victims came forward to report what he says happened to him.

Paul Dickinson, 71, of St. Paul said he was on his evening stroll along Grand Avenue near Avon Avenue in St. Paul when a man ran at him from behind and tackled him.

"I had no advanced warning at all, so I just fell like a stone.  I did a faceplant on the sidewalk," Dickinson said.

Dickinson also spotted the young man running away and laughing after the attack.  It was a scene he didn't expect to see again -- until he learned of the now infamous video.  Dickinson believes his attack was one of those included in the video.

"I  think what did they do, was that on their list, they had to go tackle an old man," he said.

Dickinson is still suffering from a split lip, whiplash, bruised chest and sore knee -- but he continues to go on his nightly walks.  He also hopes the young men face consequences for their actions.  He'd like them to do community service, either work at a battered women's shelter or nursing home.

The creator of the six minute video described it as "A video of a bunch of Somali males engaging in criminal behavior assaulting random bicyclists and children."

During the video, which was edited and set to music, the young men give full names and nicknames such us Shark," "Lil Stain," and "Jigsaw." They take turns saying "Watch this," before knocking down people walking, jogging and riding a bicycle.

Police believe the eight suspects -- who all appear to be teenage boys -- targeted their suspects in St. Paul and Minneapolis this last weekend.  Police say they don't appear to have a clear motive for the crimes: not a fight, not robbery, not self-defense.

In fact, police believe the young men are engaging in a country-wide trend called "wilding," where the suspects document their crimes and then post them online.

"They simply appear to be motivated by messing with, harming, hurting or scaring people," Schnell said.

But the video does offer police key pieces of evidence: including the suspects' faces, names and images of the crimes being committed.

"This investigation is going to be made a whole lot easier by the fact that this video was posted," Schnell said.

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