Man ‘hit in the face 20 times’ in Halloween attack on him and teen cousin, he says
Before he was brutally attacked while trick-or-treating with his teen cousin on Halloween, Daniel Peterson says he heard his assailants talking about candy.
“Hit him, hit him, take his candy,” Peterson recalled the group of teen attackers saying, according to ABC13.
Police say they found both Drey and Peterson seriously injured Wednesday night in Egg City Harbor, New Jersey, near Philadelphia Avenue and Beethoven Street, according to The Press of Atlantic City.
A GoFundMe page created to help cover medical expenses for the family says the attack began after Peterson and his 15-year-old cousin Ethan Drey refused to give up their candy.
“As they approached Danny and Ethan from behind, Ethan heard one of the boys say he wanted the bag of candy,” the page reads. “Ethan said no, and the brutal attack against my cousins began.
“... One of the group members knocked the bag of candy out of Ethan’s hand, and Danny was punched in the jaw, hit in the head with a pipe, and knocked unconscious,” reads the page, which alleges the attack continued after Peterson was knocked out. “Ethan’s arms were held behind his back, he was thrown to the ground, and stomped on by the attackers until he lost consciousness.”
The assault left 29-year-old Peterson hospitalized with cuts on his face and a fractured jaw that needed 28 stitches, according to CBS Philadelphia. Peterson told the outlet that he was “cut with a blade or something across my face.”
Drey received a concussion in the attack, according to ABC13. He was also sent to the hospital.
Police are reviewing surveillance footage that might have captured the attack, according to CBS Philadelphia.
Peterson said he was hit in the face “20 times within two seconds” in the attack, ABC13 reported, as his frightened cousin who has autism watched.
“I thought they killed him,” Drey said of Peterson, according to ABC13. “It was so gruesome that if you had been there, you would have thought he would have been dead.”
Charli Corea said her family is coming together after the assault on her nephew Drey and cousin Peterson, according to The Press of Atlantic City.
“Our family is doing what we can,” Corea said, according to the outlet. “We’re a tight-knit family as it is, so with something like this happening, it will bring us closer.”