Wife decries 'senseless' mob beating

Mob pulled man who honked horn from car and beat him

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- The wife of a man yanked from his car and brutally beaten by a mob of young people called on the community to stop the violence and for parents to control their children.

"It's just senseless," Linda Johnson, wife of Samuel McClain, said Wednesday in her first public statement since Monday's beating.

"If people could see him now compared to how he looked before, they'd be shocked," she said.

The family released a photo of the 50-year-old man in a hospital bed with a bruised and swollen face. He was in critical but stable condition Wednesday.

Samuel McClain was well enough to talk to officers Tuesday night, and several other people also were questioned, police said.

City officials asked for the public's help in finding the assailants, believed to be between 16 and 23 years old.

As many as 15 youths punched, kicked and jumped on McClain after he honked his horn for them to move out of the street, police said. It was the latest in a string of mob beatings in the city since 2002.

"I thought that the last time this happened in our community that people would wake up," his wife said. "It's time for this to stop. Parents need to sit down and talk with their children about what's right and what's wrong."

Some neighbors cooperated with police, but others were afraid to come forward, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said.

"We have some people who were there and saw this happening and didn't intervene," she said.

Police Chief Nan Hegerty and Mayor Tom Barrett pleaded with residents to tell investigators what they know.

"This is not typical of the city of Milwaukee," Barrett said. "Community responsibility, parental responsibility has to come into play."

Several mob beatings have taken place in Milwaukee's inner city in recent years. In 2002, more than a dozen people, mostly boys, chased a man through the streets and beat him to death with shovel handles, rakes and tree limbs.

A man with schizophrenia died after being beaten and robbed by a group in July 2004. Six teens were charged; one was convicted, charges against four were dropped and one is awaiting trial.

Four days after that attack, a 14-year-old boy was kicked, punched and hit on the head with a piece of lumber after he exchanged words with a girl. He was in a coma for two weeks.

Also that summer, four brothers were beaten by a group armed with bats, bottles, sticks and socks stuffed with canned food.