SURPRISE, AZ — A teenage boy was ambushed and attacked by a group at a party in Surprise on Saturday. Police believe he was threatened at gunpoint.
As they look to arrest the perpetrators, who are still at large, the victim’s mother and another parent are raising concerns about teen violence going into another weekend.
A chaotic scene is captured in videos from a house party in Surprise. The clips, shared with ABC15 by high schoolers who were there, show a group attack on a 15-year-old boy.
“My son is just really lucky to be alive,” his mother, who did not want to be identified due to safety concerns, said.
The incident happened near Sarival Avenue and Greenway Road before 9 p.m. The teen’s mom says just minutes after her son arrived at the party, he was surrounded, threatened with a gun, beaten, and thrown into a pool.
“They were kicking him, punching him, knocking him to the ground, stomping on him,” she said. “In the videos, I see like 11 kids fighting my son. So I have endless surveillance of this from kids just all around him, recording. Nobody was helping him, nobody was trying to intervene.”
The teen escaped by jumping over a wall. His mom took him to the emergency room. She shared his medical documents, which show he had a concussion, head wounds, and a broken nose from the assault.
“The ER said, had he not been in his stature, my son is about 6’1”, had he not been that tall and big and able to defend himself the way that he was, it would have been fatal. It would have been really bad for my son,” she said.
Surprise Police responded to the house around 9 p.m. for a call about a gun, and confirmed the attack.
“Our investigators that have told us that there were multiple people captured on video who had assaulted the teenage victim,” Sgt. Rick Hernandez, Public Information Officer with the Surprise Police Department, said.
Investigators are sharing a video clip with the public that shows a person of interest in the attack. That person is masked and appears to be pointing a gun at the victim.
“They're working with some of the resources we have within our department, from our real-time information center analyst, they're working with our school resource officers,” Sgt. Hernandez said.
Police are also combing through multiple videos, working to identify suspects.
Sgt. Hernandez says the party, which was shared on social media, highlights just how quickly situations can escalate when gatherings are promoted online without supervision.
“Knowing that these people are still on the street is not easy. Knowing that these guns are on the street is not easy,” one Surprise dad told ABC15.
That parent, who also does not want to be identified, says his 16-year-old son was robbed at gunpoint back in February by two people who took about $2,000 worth of items.
“We absolutely believe that it's the same people. There's videos, there's pictures,” he said. “I want them to be stopped. Their behavior is obviously escalating; now it's turned violent. I don't want them to kill somebody.”
Police say they are investigating that robbery case, but have not confirmed a link to Saturday’s assault.
“We don't know if those two incidents are connected,” Sgt. Hernandez. “We are aware of that report, and it is something that our investigators will look at every possible angle.”
Both incidents are now raising questions for these parents about teen safety.
“We were hearing about a lot of teen violence, so I ended up purchasing a house in Surprise to get away from that. And this happened,” the mom of the teenager who was attacked said.
They’re now hoping for accountability, fast.
“It's a risky game tell me to let the system play out and be patient, but then allow these individuals to kind of terrorize the community,” the dad of the teen who was robbed said. “If they feel untouchable, they're going to escalate.”
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“I just keep thinking about what could have happened. What could have the outcome been if my son didn't come home that day?” the mother added. “I'm very scared for another kid out there, that this could happen during the week, this could happen just at any time. And my son is lucky. What if the next kid is not lucky?”
Sgt. Hernandez says the key to promoting teen safety is communication between parents and their children and periodic check-ins. He also points out that Surprise’s 14 School Resource Officers are available to help families.
Surprise Police want the public’s help in identifying the person of interest and other suspects in this attack. Anyone with information should call them at 623-222-TIPS, or email crimetips@surpriseaz.gov, and reference incident number 260400178.
