After a man and a group of middle-school-aged girls beat a 64-year-old man to death in D.C. this fall, the girls walked away in a “celebratory” mood, a detective testified that video footage shows.
Reggie Brown died after he was brutally assaulted on Georgia Avenue NW early the morning of Oct. 17, 2023. A Metropolitan Police Department detective described him as being physically handicapped, with missing fingers on each hand and ongoing ailments.
A 12-year-old girl and two 13-year-old girls were arrested late last week and charged with murder. The man involved in the attack has still not been identified.
A four-and-a-half-hour court hearing on Friday revealed new details in the case.
The two 13-year-olds appeared in D.C. Superior Court, where Detective Harry Singleton called video of the deadly beating “horrific.” The attack was caught on surveillance video as well as cellphone video.
First, the man who would attack Brown “escorted” him across Georgia Avenue, Singleton testified. The man was wearing a blue coat.
According to what was caught on numerous cameras in the area, the man was the first person to assault Brown. He threw him against a wall and knocked him to the ground, the detective testified.
A prosecutor played several videos that showed a group of girls walking on Georgia Avenue. One girl asked the man if she could “fight him too.”
Videos show Brown managing to get up and try to get away.
The girls kicked and stomped on Brown and then left in a “celebratory” mood, cellphone video from a girl who was not charged showed, the detective said.
When officers arrived at the 6200 block of Georgia Avenue, near Rittenhouse Street, Brown was dead.
“My uncle really didn’t deserve this,” a niece of Brown’s said in a statement to News4 on Friday. “He was known in this community for years so for this to happen where he lived for 64 [years] is insane. They have to be held accountable!”
A friend of Brown's said he was stunned to hear that children were responsible for the attack.
“That’s rough. That’s rough. They need to pay the penalty if they did it,” he said.
There’s no indication that Brown knew the girls, the detective testified.
Singleton described a monthslong investigation, with detectives reviewing videos frame by frame to try to identify the attackers.
The parents of the 13-year-old girls, whose names were not released, were in court for the testimony on Friday. Testimony revealed that the girls missed weeks of school.
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The judge found probable cause for charges of second-degree murder, assault and conspiracy and ordered the girls held in a secure juvenile facility.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.
