Teen critical after being assaulted with bat

Staff report

WARREN

A 15-year-old boy was flown by helicopter to Akron Children’s Hospital on Wednesday night from Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital after being hit in the head with a baseball bat at Brier Street and Duke Avenue Southeast.

One witness said Verdarell Lowery and others were injured in a fight that involved about 50 young people about 8:30 p.m.

When officers arrived, they saw a large group of juveniles, some running and some standing around, and saw the injured boy being placed in his aunt’s car. He was bleeding from the side of his head, having seizures and vomiting while waiting for an ambulance to arrive, police said.

A witness told police he was with the injured boy and others, who had gone to Brier Street because they heard there was going to be a fight.

When they got there, a man with a bat was chasing people all over the street. A few minutes later, as the boys were walking through a yard, the man and some of his friends came from “nowhere” and began kicking and beating them with their fists.

Warren police are investigating.

A spokesperson for Akron Children’s Hospital said there is no record of the injured boy being at the hospital, but patients can “opt out” of having information about them released to the public. But Verdarell’s mother, Kim, told WFMJ, The Vindicator’s media affiliate, that her son is “half-dead” with swelling and bleeding on his brain.

Verdarell was knocked out, and when he hit the ground, someone “stomped on his head,” she said, adding that doctors are unsure if “he’s gonna make it.”