Jim Shea an 84 year-old man from Philadelphia is attempting to recover after a brutal beating by a group of young kids during one of his routine nature walks earlier in the week. Jim was enjoying a 5 mile hike through Fairmont Park on Monday when 4 boys jumped him for strictly entertainment purposes.
Hit the jump to read the full story.
Amanda Mullen
An 84-year-old Philadelphia man is recovering after he was savagely attacked by a gang of young punks during one of his regular nature walks earlier this week.
Jim Shea, a former Temple University administrator, told the Philadelphia Daily News that he was taking a five-mile hike through the city’s sprawling Fairmont Park on Monday when a crew of four hellraisers jumped him for sport.
The punks even attacked him from behind.
“I felt a real something to the head, a real blow to the head from behind,” he told the newspaper. “It knocked me to the ground; that was the biggie.”
The gang laughed and jeered as they shamelessly punched and kicked the elderly man for several minutes, at one point smashing him in the face with a rock, Shea said.
Finally, they simply took off.
Shea said the most sickening part of the attack was that the goons showed no desire to rob him.
“I think it was just to ‘get the old geezer,'” he told the Philadelphia paper. “They were some bad kids with rancid souls.”
Shea was rushed to a hospital after a cyclist spotted him staggering through the park after the beating.
Doctors stitched closed a large gash in his face and also treated him for a broken nose and other injuries.
Cops have yet to make a collar in the case.
Shea described the crew as four young, black men, between the ages of 16 and 21. Three of them were wearing La Salle University sweatshirts, according to local reports.
Shea said the twisted geezer-beaters won’t stop him from taking his regular treks through the park.
“I hope to make myself do it,” he told the newspaper. “It’s been a wonderful thing for me at my age.”
