South Fulton County

Teen with autism describes being attacked by group of people

SOUTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A mother says an attacker beat up her teenage son who has autism.

The young man told Channel 2's Rikki Klaus that his attackers were strangers.

His mother told Klaus that she cries every time she thinks about what happened to her son.

“Stuff like that doesn’t make a man tough,” the mother said, asking that we not identify her or her son. “I was so angry.”

The teen said two men and a woman he’d never seen before started making fun of his sunglasses in the Walmart shopping plaza off Jonesboro Road in Union City on June 15.

He told Klaus that he talked back, and that’s when one man pummeled him.

“I felt my eyes was swollen, my jaw was swollen, my lip was bleeding,” the teen said. “My head was hurt real bad.”

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An ambulance rushed the teen to Grady Memorial Hospital, where his mother said she saw her son and learned of his condition.

“My son had bleeding between his brain and his skull. He’s very lucky to be alive. It could have been the other way,” the mother said. “I’m livid.”

A barber shop manager in the shopping plaza, who only identified himself as Eric, was the first to see the teen after he got up from the ground.

He told Klaus that he was the one who called 911.

“It was like something you see off a movie. He leaves out of here with a fresh haircut, a nice decent young man. And when he comes back, both his eyes were like almost shut. He had blood coming out of his nose. His mouth was bleeding,” Eric said.

He said he talked to the attackers who got away.

"I hope you feel real good about yourself jumping on a child that's autistic," Eric said. 
Police say they're following up on leads in the attack.

Klaus said she has also requested surveillance video from shops around the shopping center.