Saturday, July 28, 2012

Five arrested in Pennsylvania for terrorizing Jewish camp

Charges include terroristic threats, assault and vandalism; suspects allegedly chased campers in pickup, shot them with paintball gun

Three adults and two juveniles were arrested this week after they allegedly terrorized a Wayne County Jewish camp for boys and teenagers, WNEP TV News reported. The five were charged with menacing children at Camp Bonim on three separate occasions.

Police made arrests after a separate incident in which one of the suspects, while off camp grounds, hit a camp counselor with his truck and was subsequently stopped by authorities in New York state.

According to the report Wednesday, the attacks occurred during the early morning hours. The accused allegedly entered the camp grounds in a white pickup truck, chased campers and damaged property.

Wayne County District Attorney Janine Edwards said that the suspects also “yelled ethnic slurs that are unspeakable and…shot a paintball gun at some campers, hitting one with the paintball gun.”

“It`s unfortunate that people might come in here, and because we might be slightly different from everybody else that gives them the right to do things that are just incorrect,” head elementary counselor Isaac Pearl was reported as saying on the WNEP website.

“It’s certainly upsetting, but thank God things were really taken care of very quickly. It makes me feel a lot better having the responsibility of all these boys in camp. It was a little unsettling,” Michael Verkowitz, head high school counselor said. “We pray every day. We pray every day for peace in the whole world and that includes every area of the world.

Tyler Cole of Tennessee and Mark Trail and Cassandra Robinson of Pennsylvania were all charged, along with two juveniles. The charges included assault, vandalism and terroristic threats, the report said.

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