Two young white O’Fallon men say three young black and one Hispanic man played the race card to trump assault charges following a bloody fight earlier this month in St. Peters.
As reported last week in the American, the four minorities accused Chris Potter and Ricky Sullivan of calling them “niggers” and beating them with a tire iron, a hammer and a baseball bat outside a house party.
Sullivan and Potter couldn’t be reached for comment last week, but responded to the article, calling the hate crime allegation and published explanation of events erroneous.
“I’m far from a racist, and African Americans don’t deserve to be called that,” Sullivan said.
Lorenzo Bryant, Tony Campos, Chad Jackson and Mark Elliott previously told the American they had been invited to the house party where they allegedly were assaulted.
Sullivan said he and Potter wouldn’t have invited them to the party if they hated black people.
Sullivan tried to remove race from the incident. He said, “I could’ve said they called us ‘white trash,’ but I’m not going to lie – there was a fight, but we were protecting ourselves.”
Sullivan said Chad Jackson, who is biracial, instigated the fight with name-calling, allegedly saying Sullivan had “that one-hitter quitter” – referring to a fist that could do no damage.
Sullivan said he immediately asked Jackson to leave. He said Jackson left, but soon returned and punched Potter’s brother Jessie Potter in the face knocking, him to the floor.
“I said, ‘What’s going on?’ and Chad threw me into the wall and Lorenzo (Bryant) jumps on me and starts knocking me in my head,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan and Potter said the weapons entered the fray because they were within reach inside a garage where some of the party was taking place. They said Bryant grabbed the weapons.
Sullivan said he and Potter were able to wrestle a tire iron and then a bat away from Bryant at two different points.
Bryant, Jackson, Elliott and Compos all have accused their alleged assailants of a hate crime. They were called to respond on Tuesday and yesterday but could not be reached for comment.
“I started swinging, we had to protect ourselves,” Sullivan said. “I know it looks like they got the worse end of it, but I was pretty bad off.”
Sullivan said his lip and eye were swollen and he temporarily couldn’t lift his left arm.
Neither Sullivan nor Potter received medical attention.
According to hospital reports, Bryant suffered multiple broken bones in his nose, Campos had to get his head stapled 11 times to close a wound, Jackson received stitches for a laceration in his head and suffered headaches, and Elliott suffered a closed head injury, concussion, contusion in the neck and a laceration in his left eyebrow that required seven stitches.
Sullivan said the fight was chaotic and some of the blows sustained by Bryant, Campos, Jackson and Elliott could have inadvertently been delivered by someone on their side of the fight.
Kristen Vinselneier, age 19, who said she is a friend of men from both sides of the fight, agreed.
“Everyone was all over the place – you couldn’t really tell who was helping who or who was trying to break it up,” Vinselneier said.
She said the number and severity of injuries could be explained by the relentlessness of Jackson and Bryant.
“After Chad knocked Jessie out, Ricky rushed them with a bat and they wouldn’t stop fighting,” she said of Jackson and Bryant.
“They just kept coming and coming.”
She said that Campos, one of the men who later alleged a hate crime had occurred, was trying to break up the fight. Campos now has 11 staples in his head.
She also said that Jackson had started the trouble.
“Chad was announcing to the whole party, ‘I’m a beast – I will knock anyone out at this party,’” Vinselneier said.
“He (Chad) came in the garage and started going crazy,” Vinselneier said.
Kristen also challenged the claim made by Catherine Jackson (Chad’s mother) that the St. Peters Police Department is trying to cover up a hate crime.
“I really don’t think the St. Peters Police Department was trying to keep it on the low – I just think they needed time to investigate it before putting it out,” Vinselneier said.
Catherine Jackson did not return calls from the American yesterday and Tuesday.
The St. Peters Police Department is continuing its investigation and isn’t looking at the incident as a hate crime unless evidence leads in that direction.
Vinselneier also denied an allegation that Potter and Sullivan are part of a racist gang called the Midget Mafia.
“The Midget Mafia hangs out with all different types of races,” she said.
Sullivan said he was a member when he was 13-15, but that it isn’t active now and wasn’t a racist gang.
Potter said he was the person who called the police. However, he and Sullivan may be charged with second-degree assault.
As for the hate crime, Sullivan and Potter insisted race had nothing to do with it.
“We never used the N-word – I’m not like that,” Potter said. “I guess they said that because it all happened at my house and it was self-defense.”
“Chris and Ricky aren’t racist at all,” Vinselneier said of Potter and Sullivan. “They hang out with more black people than white.”
Sullivan said, “I’m very unhappy because it didn’t happen like that and I don’t want people thinking I’m a racist. I have black friends, and my niece is black. I don’t want her to grow up and think I’m a racist.”