2 Charged in Florida Blow-Dart Attack
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two brothers who live in a wealthy waterfront neighborhood are charged in a blow-dart attack on a black bicyclist during an early morning prowl in their mother’s red Mercedes.
Their lawyer portrays the attack as an act of “drunken stupidity” by boys who are good athletes and solid students at an elite private high school.
But police in Pompano Beach, where the March 30 attack occurred, have recommended that the teenagers, who are white, be charged with assault under the state’s hate-crime statute.
Victim Edward Chapman, 54, said the boys in the Mercedes were laughing at him after he pulled the three-inch, needlelike dart from his back.
Police charged 18-year-old Jason Kovalcin and his brother, 16, with aggravated assault.
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