If we need reminders about how dangerous in can be to be homeless in America we need look no further than Baltimore. That’s where three teen-agers have been on trial for murdering people who are homeless. What was their reason for killing these people? They wanted to “clean up the neighborhood” so they engaged in a game they called “bum stomping.”
A South Baltimore teen-ager who prosecutors say fatally beat three homeless men in a sport he and his friends called "bum stomping" was found guilty yesterday of murdering one of the men by fracturing his skull.Minutes after the verdict in Baltimore Circuit Court, defendant Harold "Jay" Waterbury, 19, was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, and hissed at a detective who worked on the case, "I'm going to get you."
Waterbury was the third defendant to be found guilty of the attack in April 2001 that killed Gerald J. Holle, 55, a homeless man living under the Monroe Street bridge in the 1800 block of S. Monroe St. Holle suffered several blows to the head.
Their mission was "bum stomping," meaning they planned to beat and rob homeless men to force them out of the area, Ennis testified last week. They used baseball bats, a crowbar, a steel pole and wooden sticks in the attacks.
Our prayers need to go out to Gerald Holle and his family.
