STAMFORD — Police have arrested three teens who they said beat a man this month in an unprovoked attack.
Detectives arrested a Stamford 15-year-old and a 16-year-old from Port Chester, N.Y. Monday, police said. A third teenager, a 15-year-old from Bridgeport, was arrested Feb. 13.
All three teens, who attend a charter high school called Stamford Academy, were charged with first-degree assault on an elderly person, conspiracy to commit first-degree assault and breach of peace. The 16-year-old also was charged with coercion, police said.
All were remanded to the Bridgeport youth detention center.
A fourth teen has been identified but not arrested yet, police Capt. Richard Conklin said Tuesday.
The injured man, whom police declined to identify, is an administrator at Stamford High School, Conklin said. The teens did not know him.
He sustained multiple fractures to his neck, back and left arm and underwent surgery at Stamford Hospital before being discharged Monday.
According to police, the attack happened on Feb. 11, after the man visited a Prospect Street convenience store. Three of the youths had been in the store at the same time, police said.
As the three left the store, a fourth teenager joined them and the group walked south on Prospect Street, following the man.
One of the teens coerced a 15-year-old into attacking the man by telling him if he didn’t, he would reveal unflattering information about him.
The man then was picked up, slammed into the ground and punched in the face several times, police said.
Investigators reviewed numerous surveillance tapes, including one that showed four people running west on North Street and into a side entrance of Stamford Academy.
Last week, a witness gave police a statement that allowed them to identify one of the youths, and detectives received more information over the weekend that led them to the others.
Conklin said police continue to investigate another random attack that happened on Atlantic Street on Dec. 19. In that assault, a different group of teenagers pelted a man with snowballs and attacked him when he objected, he said.
The man sustained a broken nose and injuries to his eye socket and sinus cavity, Conklin said. The injuries would have been worse if a plainclothes narcotics officer on his way to work hadn’t jumped out of his car and tackled one of the youths, he said.
“These are troubling because they are unprovoked attacks,” Conklin said.
By Christine Dempsey, Hartford Courant