Black Teen Says White Youths Dragged Him
A black teenager said he was grabbed by three white youths who yelled racial slurs and dragged him alongside their moving vehicle.
Baron Manning, 17, said he suffered an eye injury and abrasions.
Manning said the boys called him over to the vehicle early Friday, grabbed him through an open window by his shirt and dragged him until the cloth ripped and he fell near the back wheels.
“He indicated to me that his head was about an inch from the wheel of the vehicle,” the Rev. Johnny Scott said Saturday. “He thought he would be killed by the wheel.”
Scott, president of the East St. Louis chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, asked the FBI to investigate.
Scott said the attack on Manning could have been inspired by an attack in Jasper, Texas, in which a black man was killed when he was dragged behind a truck.
Detective Sgt. Roger Barfield said it was too early to tell if Manning was a victim of a copycat crime.
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