Two additional juveniles have been charged in a June 29 robbery and assault in Oak Harbor that left a young man with serious injuries, according to court records.
Oak Harbor police identified five juveniles who participated in the attack after obtaining a cell phone video while investigating a homicide case. Officers arrested three of the suspects last month and caught up with the other two, a 16- and 17-year-old, this week.
The two boys appeared in Island County Juvenile Court Oct. 13. They have both been charged with robbery in the second degree, assault in the second degree and theft in the second degree.
The attorney for one of the juveniles is asking the judge to approve public funds for an investigator at $85 an hour. The attorney wrote in a motion that there may be an issue with a search warrant “granted based upon what was seen without a warrant.”
According to the department, the victim told police that a girl had messaged him to meet at Fort Nugent Park. When he arrived, however, five kids “jumped him” and began punching and kicking him without provocation. The attackers took his cell phone, which turns the assault into a robbery.
The victim went to the hospital and was treated for a dislocated shoulder, a head laceration and several contusions.
A break in the case came when detectives served a search warrant on a 15-year-old boy who is considered “a person of interest” in a homicide case, court documents state.
“In the video, the victim is seen attempting to greet and shake the hand of a male who then ‘sucker punched’ the victim without warning,” the police statement on the case states. “Immediately, all five subjects then brazenly and without warning attack this lone victim and spend an entire minute punching, kicking, and throwing the victim down, and striking and kicking him multiple times while at least three others watch, including the person taking the video and the girl who initially lured the victim to this location.”
