USA, Ohio, Cincinnati – 15 May, 2017: In this shocking beating a Librarian in his 40s was walking past the Downtown Main Library at midnight, on Vine Street on 15th May 2015. A group of 4 Black Males approached and asked for a cigarette. Then the attack began with one of the group keeping look out whilst the other 3 descended on the unfortunate victim like a pack of wild animals.

At first in the video we can see he attempts to escape but the trio attack like Rabid dogs, jumping on and punching at him. As he desperately attempts to avoid their attacks he weaves almost breaking away then trips landing heavily on his shoulder. He puts his hands up as if to plead for mercy but the strikes rain in immediately from 3 directions. The attacks are not as hard as other beatings but the number of them is overwhelming to watch. Many of the blows were the wheeling closed fisted slaps – commonly used by Blacks in skirmishes, and kicks – when a clear line of attack became available. The man gets up and again attempts to get away after but they follow him ceaselessly punching all parts of his chest and face so he is at one point kneeling while they are around him punching at his head or wherever their wild windmill strikes land. After about 30 seconds one of the group – in white tea-shirt and stylised ripped light blue jeans, moves away, the others finishing with the Male in Black joggers, tea-shirt and trainers (identified later as Johntae Dearmond) riffling through the victim’s pocket whilst the man in a white vest, sport shorts and slip on rubber sandals (John Watts) kicks him continuously until one of his sandals comes off, so he had to stop to put it back on. The male in black produces a mobile from his pocket and they then round the beating with a final volley of brutal kicks and punches. When the attacker in black can see he is prone and not moving seemingly satisfied he then walks off. 

The victim in his purple shirt, Sand colored Chinos and black shoes painfully attempts to sit up. The video clip ends.

The attackers later blamed intoxication and peer pressure, with one saying he couldn’t explain why he did it. They left him with brain damage and blood coming out of his ear and actually just stole a mobile phone. It seems like an opportunistic attack – with a White person intentionally targeted by a group of Blacks and beaten and then robbed – for no particular reason. That this is a tribalistic attack, or an anti-White hate crime seems a very realistic reading. However the attackers were not charged with a racist attack. This seems to have been overlooked in the trial. Johntae Dearmond pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and was sentenced to nine years. John Watts was sentenced to 7 years.
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The May 15, 2017 beating of a man near Downtown’s Main Library was a random attack, prosecutors said. The victim didn’t do anything to provoke it. Two of the attackers in the video are serving prison sentences.

John Watts was several minutes into his sentencing Thursday when the judge asked him why he tackled a man at random, then participated in a beating so violent the judge wasn’t able to watch the entire video.

“I just attacked him,” the 20-year-old Watts said.

“Why did this happen?” Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Jody Luebbers asked.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” he said.

Watts is the second man convicted in the May 15, 2017 attack near Downtown’s Main Library. Luebbers sentenced Watts to seven years in prison. He pleaded guilty last month to felonious assault.

In September, Johntae Dearmond pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and was sentenced to nine years. Dearmond, now 21, blamed the attack on “intoxication.”

On Thursday, Watts’ attorney, Doug Nicholas, said alcohol and peer pressure led to what happened. Court documents describe a third, unidentified attacker.

The victim, a librarian in his 40s, was walking near the library shortly after midnight when Watts, Dearmond and the third person approached him. A fourth person served as a lookout, court documents say.

They asked the librarian for a cigarette. Then the attack began. It was Watts who tackled him to the sidewalk, Assistant Prosecutor Allison Oswall said Thursday.

The man was struck about 50 times. He was kicked in the face. The attack lasted about a minute. He suffered internal brain bleeding. Blood came out of his ear. Dearmond can be seen taking the man’s cellphone.