Man Beaten by Teens in Capitol Hill After Trying to Stop Attack

A D.C. man who tried to stop an attack on a teenage boy this week on Pennsylvania Avenue NW was severely beaten by a group of teens, he told News4.

District Heights resident Contee Hursey suffered a concussion and fractured jaw, and needed to get stitches above his left eye, after a group of teens punched, kicked and stomped on him Tuesday afternoon just one block east of the Eastern Market Metro station.

Hursey had just finished pumping gas at the BP station at Pennsylvania Avenue and 9th Street SE about 4:45 p.m. when he saw the teens gang up on one boy, repeatedly kicking him.

"That's somebody's kid. How would I feel if it was mine?" Hursey said, speaking about the attack for the first time.

Surveillance video from the gas station shows Hursey approach the teens on the sidewalk. He was attacked off camera, he and a witness said, and then the footage shows Hursey's friend help him walk away. Police arrived on the scene, but Hursey said he was too hurt to talk with them at the time.

Hursey said he was troubled by the violence.

"We've got a serious problem in this city as far as with these kids," he said. "They're too out of control."