Police report: Black teen cried for help as white teen pushed him underwater in Chatham

At the typically peaceful and scenic Goose Pond in Chatham on July 19, a white 14-year-old Chatham boy is alleged to have attempted to drown another boy who is Black, also calling the other boy racial slurs and throwing stones at him, according to a Chatham Police Department report.

In a press statement, Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois on Thursday called the incident a “racially motivated” attack. The teen was indicted Thursday by a Barnstable County grand jury on felony charges of attempted murder and assault with a dangerous weapon, the Galibois statement said.

Cape civil rights advocates praised the police response and called on the greater community to teach children tolerance and the history of violence against Black people in order to create a safer and more secure environment.

The name of the Black juvenile and the name of another white juvenile who was involved in the incident, according to the Galibois statement, have not been released to the public and were redacted from court records obtained by the Times. The name of the accused was not redacted but the Times is not identifying him because he is a juvenile.

Kevin Reddington, the boy's attorney, said Friday the accused was living with his mother in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after his parents, who lived on the Cape, had recently gone through a divorce. When the boy and his mother came up to Massachusetts for the arraignment, Reddington said it was unexpected that the boy was then arrested.

The boy was ordered held without bail after a dangerousness hearing in Barnstable Juvenile Court on Thursday.

"He was with his mother in Fort Lauderdale, starting his freshman year in high school, on the football team, and he's been ripped out of the high school and is now being held in a detention facility in Taunton, Massachusetts, based on allegations of attempted murder," Reddington said. "These kids were all friends, they knew each other. It was horseplay that obviously was taken to the next level."

Attempted drowning reported to Chatham police on July 21

The Black juvenile went to the police by himself on the morning of July 21 to report the incident from two days earlier at Goose Pond, telling police "two of his friends tried to drown him," according to the police report.

Around 3:30 p.m. on July 19, the Black youth told police he met up with both the accused and another boy, who is also white, at Goose Pond.

At the end of a one-lane dirt road lined with tall pine and assorted oak, the pond is part of the town's conservation lands just off Old Queen Anne Road. The pond itself has a small beach where locals swim, fish and use the rope swing about a hundred yards up the trail.

Once at the pond, the Black juvenile said the accused told the other white boy to “take (the Black boy's) bike and ride it into the pond,” according to the police report.

The Black juvenile said he told the pair that the bike was his older brother’s and not to ride it, the report stated, at which time both white boys began to throw stones at the Black youth.

Shortly afterward, according to the police report, the Black juvenile put on a life jacket in order to go into the pond because he could not swim. But once he started into the water, the accused teen is alleged to have continued to throw rocks at him and “threatened to beat him up.” The white boy then is alleged to have picked up a larger stone and threatened the Black youth with it, calling him “boy” and another racial slur, according to the police report.

Afraid of drowning

Once in the water, the Black youth told police he told the white boy not to “wrestle” with him because he was afraid of drowning, according to the police report.

The teenage suspect is then alleged to have held onto the Black youth's life jacket and pulled him underwater about four to five times, witnesses told police. The Black juvenile told police that while the white boy was doing this he could not breathe because water was going into his mouth and nose — he then yelled at the white boy to stop because he felt lightheaded and “almost threw up.”

The other white boy started laughing and called the Black youth “George Floyd”, according to the police report.

A few moments later, the police report stated, the accused and the other white boy started to grab at the Black juvenile's feet underwater. The suspect is alleged to have then asked the Black juvenile if he “liked his life.”

“I can’t once I’m drowning,” the Black juvenile said in response, according to the police report. He then started to yell for help, to which the accused is alleged to have called him a “bitch” and a “pussy.”

A person on the beach swims out toward the three juveniles

One of six people on the beach started to swim out toward the three juveniles, the report stated, yelling for the white boy to stop trying to dunk the Black boy — at which time, he did. The person helped the Black boy back to shore. The Black youth told police he packed up his belongings and left.

Reddington plans to appeal his client's detention

Although the suspect is a juvenile, a Massachusetts state law allows for the indictment proceedings of a youthful offender to be open to the public in the same manner as an adult criminal offender’s records.

On Friday, the accused boy's father answered a call from the Times but declined to comment on the case.

Reddington said his client is being held in detention as a danger for 120 days, adding he plans to appeal the case to the Barnstable Superior Court.

"This is a significant overreach by the D.A.," Reddington said. "I believe that when you have a 14-year-old child, you're causing irreparable harm when you pull them out of school as freshmen and put them in jail, especially on something like this."

Community response to allegations

Members of civil rights groups on Cape Cod praised the police for a thorough and thoughtful investigation.

“The first thing I think about is the communities of color on the Cape and how something like this impacts all of them," said Jeff Spalter, a Chatham summer resident and a member of the MLK Task Force Conversations with Police subcommittee, which is a part of the Nauset Interfaith Association. "I worry about how they go about every day and feel secure and protected,”

“It was nice to see the police responding thoughtfully and thoroughly as they did and their alignment with the district attorney to bring charges forward, getting it to a grand jury and using the criminal justice system based on what we know took place,” said Spalter, who is a member of the Jewish Am Hayam Congregation on the Lower Cape.

The Conversations with Police subcommittee has been meeting the police from Chatham, Brewster, Orleans and Harwich since just after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis in 2020 in an effort to create understanding and a closer connection between diverse communities and police, he said. About a year ago, Eastham and Wellfleet police joined the effort.

Jeanne Morrison, a civil rights activist in Hyannis, applauded the way the police responded to the incident and said that type of violence needs to be met with education.

"I think it is very important for the community to realize what's at stake here ... our kids are learning about violence and especially racial violence," Morrison said on Friday by phone, referring to the movement against children learning about equity and inclusion in schools. "That violence will escalate beyond an isolated incident to senseless acts of violence like school shootings, mass shootings."

On Friday, the Chatham Select Board condemned the alleged attack and promised action.

“We are disturbed and saddened to learn of the event that occurred earlier this summer between juveniles,” according to the board's statement. “The Town and our Police Department have a strong relationship with the Monomoy Regional School District, and we will be working together proactively to deter events such as this from taking place in the future.”

Walker Armstrong reports on all things transportation and the Joint Base Cape Cod military base. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter:@jd__walker.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: White boy indicted in racially motivated attack on Black boy in Chatham