Sunday, April 23, 1989
NEWS
HORROR IN CENTRAL PARK
JOKE FOR TEENS
A song that didn't
make hearts sing
HE NOISE came from the holding cell in
the back of the squad room. This was right
I after 2 a.m. in the 24th Precinct, the moon
still high over Central Park. The teenagers were
together again, the videotapes already made,
confessions gory and complete.
They had been joking and laughing together
all night. They had talked to detectives for
hours, explaining everything about the gang
rape without ever offering an explanation. Not
one had used the word "sorry."
"Hit the beat," a cop heard
one of the kids say suddenly.
And then it began, a sound
from the street corner, taking
over the room. Two of the
kids became human beat box-
es, supplying the rap rhythm.
"Boof. Boof, boof," they
sputtered. "Boof. Boof, boof."
And then the teenagers
were all in on it again, the
cell filled with singing
That's what happens when
bodies start slapping, doing
the wild thing.
A few of the detectives
stopped typing their DD-5s.
They had never heard any-
thing like this before. They
had all seen color pictures of
the victim. The singing both-
ered them as much as the
crime.
"What are they doing?" a
sergeant wanted to know
"Singing," came the reply.
The song is called "wild
MIKE
MCALARY
ARDIANS
ARE TO BE BLACK
lieve, that the jogger was
raped by at least seven kids.
They dragged and assaulted
her over a 400-foot erime
scene. McCray, the others re-
membered of the frenzy, was
first.
"She wasn't nothing,"
McCray had explained him-
self
The kid knew more than
the cops had said publicly.
He knew that the woman had
been slashed deeply high
across each thigh with a
knife. The cops hadn't told
anybody about the slashing,
so they figure McCray is the
right guy, and probably the
worst of the bunch.
Yusef Salaam, 15, is anoth-
er tough guy. He is the big-
gest of the bunch, just over 6-
feet-2. Salaam, it is charged,
"AIN'T ABOUT NOTHING': That's what Jemaine Robinson, 15, said after his arrest on charges of robbing a Thing," and all the rage of
homeless man in the park.
tough street corners. The
song, made famous by a rap-
per named Tone Loc, is a cel-
ebration of carnal knowl-
edge, the so-called wild thing.
I get paid to do that wild
thing.
Any kid worth his "wilding"
knows the words to "Wild
Thing" So when nine sus-
pects were thrown into a cell
together early yesterday, they
sang the song.
The cops were, of course,
horrifled. They had been wielded a pipe in the park.
hoping for some sign of re-
morse. But they knew what
the young jogger had been up
against - young men who not
only maim and rape, but who
also sing and joke about it
when they get caught.
Antron McCray, 15, was the
CLARENCE DAVIS DAILY NEWS
laugh over attack
provement in the condition of
the comatose victim, who was
still listed as critical at Met-
ropolitan Hospital, hooked to
a respirator. She had suf-
fered two skull fractures,
brain injuries, broken facial
bones and severe blood loss.
She was "a little more re
sponsive" yesterday, said Dr.
Scott Newman, the chief resi-
dent assigned to her care.
"When we call her name,
she now moves a little bit and
starts to turn her head," New- first to admit to the rape. At tleman. They did not know
man said. Her pupils are first he only wanted to say he what the police already sus-
closer to ngrmal. The swell- held the girl, not understand-
ing seems to be going down."
The victim's mother told the savagery. But he finally ing and robbing patrons at an
reporters at the hospital, "I
you have a moment, piease
bushed by some 12 youths as
she jogged along the 102d St.
Daily News staff writers
SHARON BROUGSARD,
JAMES DAO, InanD DavITA,
LYLE V. HARRss, ToNy
MARCANO, JOEN MARZULLU
and CLAIRE SERANT also
contributed to the
coverage of the Central
Park rampage.
transverse.
She tried to run, but was hit
with a 12-inch pipe, pelted
with rocks and finally over-
whelmed by the pack, accord-
ing to the teens' statements.
They hit her with their fists,
dragging her to a secluded
spot.
The boys tore off her
clothes and used her sweat-
shirt to restrain her flailing
arms, stuffing part of the
shirt into her mouth as a gag.
At least four raped her,
while others held her down,
police said.
The teens used the pipe source said.
and a brick to bludgeon her
when she tried to fight them
off, police said. She was on top of her."
slashed across each thigh
with a knife. She scratched
the face of one attacker.
They left her lying there,
unconscious, wearing only a
jogging bra and a ring.
The youths, with their para about what they had done to she was raped.
ents present for the question-
ing at the 24th Precinct sta-
He, too, admitted to the
crime, but made no apolo-
gies. He just made his video-
tape and then returned to his
cell to swap jokes.
All the kids' parents were,
of course, stunned. Each had
dared to hope their son a gen-
tion on W
"appeared empty of emotion
... as if they were talking
about something insignifi-
cant" when they gave their
statements, admitting varying
degrees of involvement, the
100th St.,
pect, that a few of these kids
went wilding last week, beat-
ing the law any better than
admitted to the crime, talking East Side street fair. The sus-
like it was nothing.
McCray was pretty specific charged with robbing a home-
about the object used to bash
the woman, a brick rather wilding business at the street
pect Jermaine Robinson, 15,
I only held her arms," one
boy told police. "I didn't get say a prayer (for her)."
less man, got started in the
Not identified
Later, they were taken to a
holding cell in the station,
where they were heard whis-
tling at policewomen, com-
paring what they had admit-
ted on tape and "laughing by the Daily News because
The victim, a Pittsburgh- than a rock. The cops have
recovered the brick, which
the upper East Side since was used with such ven-
1986, is not being identified geance on the back of the vic-
tim's head that it forced her
brain to ricochet of the front
fair.
Robinson's parents are cor-
rection officers. They have
come home each night with
terrible stories about prison.
They have always believed
area native who has lived on
The eight youths awaited of her skull.
the woman."
Doctors reported slight im-
See JOGGER Page 35
It's probable, the cops be-
See MCALARY Page 35
3/20
