Group of teenagers beat up man at Tubbs Hill; knife pulled in incident

August 05, 2011 at 3:12 pm | By DAVID COLE / Staff writer

COEUR d’ALENE — It looks like it’s going to be a trip to Tubbs Hill that one man neither remembers nor soon forgets.

Witnesses told police an 18-year-old Snohomish, Wash., man was attacked Tuesday by a group of teenage boys at the Third Street parking lot next to the city’s popular park.

One of the alleged victim’s friends, a 19-year-old Hayden man, stepped in to help, but a knife was pulled on him, according to a Coeur d’Alene police report.

The teenager who pulled the knife allegedly said, “I’ll stab you if you don’t back up,” the report said.

The man who was assaulted ended up at Kootenai Medical Center, where he told police he couldn’t remember what happened.

He repeatedly asked police at the hospital if he got “gang beat.”

He had abrasions on his face, back, ribs and chest, and blood on his mouth, the report said.

Coeur d’Alene Police Department Det. Don Ashenbrenner said the incident remains under investigation, and police were following up on some leads.

“There was some real potential for danger here,” he said.

Witnesses told police the alleged victim, planning to offer some help, had approached a man who appeared and sounded upset about his truck being moved to a different parking spot.

The man replied by saying, “Who the (expletive) are you?”

The victim went to shake the man’s hand, and in response the man charged him, the police report said.

He managed to put the man in a headlock, and the two men went to the ground, where they exchanged punches and wrestled.

Approximately six of the man’s associates ran over and began to punch and kick the victim.

After a few minutes the attackers left the scene.

The witnesses said the men in the group appeared to be in their late teens, and had been hanging out in the nearby park.

One witness told police the blade was estimated to be six or seven inches in length, with a wood and gold handle.

The teenager with the knife had a tattoo on his chest of a dark-colored New York Yankees logo, the report said.

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