MISSISSIPPI TEENS ACCUSED OF KILLING A BLACK MAN ON TAPE WHILE SCREAMING "WHITE POWER"

A black man in Mississippi was beaten by a group of white teens and crushed by a pickup truck - and it was caught on tape, police said.
"This was a crime of hate," Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith told CNN in a report aired Sunday. "The evidence will show that."

Authorities say James Craig Anderson was set upon by several teenagers and savagely beaten the night of June 26 ion a Jackson motel parking lot.

Witnesses said the group used racial epithets during the assault, and barked out "White Power!"

After clobbering him, several of the teens got into a Ford F250 pickup, and while Anderson tried to stumble for help, the driver ran him down, police said.

The video, captured by a surveillance camera, shows the attack in haunting detail. It ends with the truck backing up, then slamming into the 49-year-old.

"It appears there is no doubt that this was a racially motivated killing," Winston Thompson, the lawyer representing Anderson's family, told CNN. "The family is still in shock still in disbelief."

Two teens were arrested in the slaying.

Deryl Dedmon was the teen behind the wheel of the Ford truck that killed Anderson, police said. He has been charged with murder.

John Aaron Rice is charged with aggravated assault. Authorities believe he was in another car and had driven away before Anderson was killed.

The two 18-year-olds drove 15 miles to Jackson in search of a black man to attack, prosecutors said. At least five other teens are believed to have been with the two at the time, but none has been charged.

During grand jury testimony, Detective Eric Smith said Dedmon had been robbed in the weeks before Anderson's death and that he was looking for "some sort of revenge."

On June 26, Dedmon and Rice were at a party when Dedmon came up with the idea to come to Jackson to mess with some people," the detective said.

"Dedmon murdered this man because he was black," Hinds told CNN.

The teens are expected to go on trial in the fall.


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