Derrion Albert, a 16-year-old honor student was beaten to death last week in Chicago. The brutal attack was captured on a camera phone. CNN aired the video and the story has garnered national attention.
Derrion Albert is now trending on Twitter and Google Trends. YouTube has been deleting videos of the incident, but people have been re-uploading it.
The video, now widely circulated, shows Albert's brutal beating death as he walked into a melee, allegedly two gangs fighting, on a Chicago street. The video shows a group striking him with boards and kicking him as he lay on a sidewalk.
Now the mothers of two of the four boys charged with Albert's murder are speaking out and one can't bear to watch the video."That's Gene. That's my son," said Eugene Riley's mother, Sherry Smith, to the Chicago Tribune. "I'm not going to lie about that." Smith offered her condolences to Albert's family.
Riley, 18, has been charged with first-degree murder with three other teens: Silvonus Shannon, 19, Eric Carson, 16, and Eugene Bailey, 18
Silvonus Shannon's mother, Tamaray Shannon, told the Chicago Tribune she could not bear to watch the video, which purportedly shows her son stomping on Albert's head.