ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – A teen faces charges for a deadly hammer attack in the Bevo Mill Neighborhood. Darrion Johner, 16, will stand trial as an adult in the murder of Zemir Begic.
In the last few weeks several Bosnian immigrants living in a St. Louis neighborhood have been attacked and one was even killed in what some residents have called race-based attacks. Now, local police are calling the attacks a hate crime.
During the last week of November, a Bosnian immigrant named Zemir Begic, 32, was killed by black suspects wielding hammers. Race was suspected as a motive as by some reports groups of blacks were roaming the streets of the Bevo Mill neighborhood yelling racial epithets in the hours before the murder.
But the final straw occurred on December 6 when a 26-year-old Bosnian-American woman was pulled from her car and beaten unconscious by a mob of black teenagers who hurled racial epithets as they attacked her.
Witnesses said that during the attack on the woman, at least one of the attackers yelled, “You’re Bosnian. I should just kill you now.”
Now, a spokesman for the St. Louis police department is saying they are investigating the crime as a possible hate crime.
“As of now, officers are investigating this incident as a bias crime based on the victim’s account of the incident,” the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department told Fox News via email. “The investigation is ongoing.”
St. Louis police pointed out that they don’t have any proof that the attacks were necessarily committed by the same suspects but the rise in attacks on citizens of Bosnian descent is a disturbing trend.
A local resident said that groups of blacks routinely block traffic and damage cars of white, Bosnian-American residents.
I’m unfamiliar with the life and work of the woman calling herself “Mary Omni,” but if the following spoken-word piece is any indication, she can teach us a lot about race relations and immigration in America.
Why was Zemir Begic murdered with hammers in the middle of a St. Louis street? Why was another Bosnian immigrant in the same neighborhood dragged from her car, threatened with death, and left beaten and unconscious?
Watch video in link below…
ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – Police arrested a fourth teenager in connection to the beating death of a man in south St. Louis. The 16 year old man was taken into juvenile custody this morning.
Police say Zemir Begic was beaten to death with a hammer by four teenagers last month. One person has already been charged with the murder. Two other juveniles are also in custody.
The St. Louis Police Department and the Bosnian community are working together to set up a substation in the area and add more beat cops along Gravois.
The St. Louis police chief has asked for the FBI’s help investigating what he believes was a hate crime attack against a woman in the same Bosnian neighborhood where a man was beaten to death days earlier by hammer-wielding teens, and where assaults have spiked dramatically in recent months.
The 26-year-old Bosnian-American woman told police she was stopped in her car by three African-American teens early Friday morning in the city’s Bevo Mill section, where tens of thousands of Bosnians settled following the civil war in the former Yugoslavia 20 years ago. The incident occurred just blocks from where Zemir Begic, a 32-year-old Bosnian-American, was beaten to death by teenagers with hammers a week earlier.
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The FBI is helping St. Louis police investigate a possible hate crime after three black teenagers allegedly accused a white woman of being Bosnian before beating her unconscious.
The attack Friday on a 26-year-old Bosnian woman occurred in the same Bevo Mill neighborhood where a 32-year-old Bosnian man named Zemir Begic was killed last weekend by a group of hammer-wielding teenagers, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Police are not investigating Begic’s death as a hate crime.
The woman, who was not identified, told police that three black teens tried to block her vehicle Friday as she was driving, pulling a gun on her and telling her to stop. One of the men allegedly struck the windshield with what appeared to be a crowbar and dragged the woman out of the vehicle. She said one of the men asked where she was from, and she told them she was European.
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A woman named Mary Omni has put out a video claiming Bosnians deserve to die.This woman issued the death threats after three black minors murdered Bosnian refugee Zemir Begic with hammers last weekend. She defends the killers. Her YouTube Channel is …
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Hundreds of people said a final goodbye to a Waterloo man killed at the hands of hammer-wielding attackers in St. Louis last weekend.
Police say 32-year-old Zemir Begic was beaten to death by a group of teenagers on November 30.
According to police, Begic was in his car when several minors approached and began hitting the car with hammers.
When he got out of the car, they attacked him with the hammers.
He later died at a St. Louis hospital.
KWWL’s Olivia Mancino sat down with the Begic family today to talk about Zemir.
“I’m really hurt, depressed, stressed out too. My heart aches. I haven’t slept much. My heart feels like I’m having a heart attack,” said Zemir’s brother Rasim.
“When I looked at him I couldn’t believe it was my brother you know. I am the youngest. I’m 20. He’s 32 right now. He will be 33 on December 7. He was like a role model to me.”
Zemir’s cousin, Asmir, is in pain.
“It’s really hard…knowing that you’re losing someone you spent most of your life with.”
He continued, “whoever met Zemir knew his personality, and it’s going to be greatly missed.”
“He helped our family a lot,” said Rasim. “One time he lived in Phoenix, Arizona, and my sisters car broke down completely. He came here all the way from Arizona to fix her car.”
“When we went out, we would sing a song together. But now it’s totally different,” said Asmir.
“We just have to accept that he’s gone forever.”
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St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson has called in the FBI to help investigate what he is calling a hate crime because a woman assaulted by three black teens is Bosnian.
The Friday morning attack occurred in the Bevo Mill neighborhood where earlier this week a Bosnian man was killed with a hammer by a group of teens.
In Friday’s case, the woman, 26, told police that she was driving in the 4600 block of Lansdowne Avenue about 5:25 a.m. when three men in their late teens to early 20s walked in front of her vehicle.
When the woman attempted to drive around the young men, at least one of them pulled a gun and ordered her to stop. One of the men struck the windshield with an object police said could have been a crowbar. The woman was pulled from the vehicle while another of the men opened the passenger door and went through the woman’s purse, saying it was empty. One of the men threw her cellphone to the ground and stomped on it.
One of the men asked where the woman was from. She said she was European.
“You’re a (expletive) liar. You’re Bosnian. I should just kill you now,” Dotson said of the woman’s account.
Based on that comment, he said, police are labeling the assault as a hate crime.
The woman was pushed to the ground and kicked before the attackers fled. A passer-by told police the woman was found unconscious. She declined to be taken to a hospital for treatment, saying she would go later.
Dotson said designating the attack as a hate crime could lead to additional charges and prison time. Suspect descriptions are scant and he is urging the community to help identify the men.
The incident occurred five days after Zemir Begic, a 32-year-old Bosnian man, was killed in the 4200 block of Itaska Street. About 1:15 a.m. Sunday, he was walking to his car with his fiancée and two others when four teens confronted the group. At least one of them struck Begic with a hammer. He suffered injuries to his face, head and abdomen. Police said they have no evidence to believe Begic was targeted because of his race, although some in the community have doubts.
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A St Louis woman was dragged out of her car, attacked and threatened with murder because she is Bosnian, police claim.
Officers called in the FBI to investigate the case as a hate crime five days after a Bosnian man was hammered to death nearby.
Police said the victim, 26, was driving around a gang of black teenagers at 5.25 on Friday morning when one pulled a gun and ordered her to stop.
One struck the windshield with a crowbar and another pulled her out the car.
The gang, believed to be all-male, then went through her empty purse and threw her cell phone on the ground, St Louis Post Dispatch reported.
The reported encounter prompted St Louis police to call the FBI to investigate the case as a hate crime.
It comes five days after Zemir Begic, 32, a South City resident of Bosnian descent, was driving home with his newlywed wife at around 1.15am when police say a group of teenagers approached his car and began vandalizing it.
Begic emerged from his vehicle to try and stop them, at which point the teenagers allegedly attacked him with hammers, striking him in the head, face and abdomen.
The motorist was taken to an area hospital, where he died from his injuries a short time later. His wife escaped unharmed after her husband reportedly shielded her from the attackers with his body.
Suspect Robert Mitchell, 17, turned himself in Sunday night after two of his alleged accomplices, ages 15 and 16, were arrested by police, reported St Louis Post-Dispatch.
The 17-year-old is being charged as an adult with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
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Zemir Begic 