A Cobb County grand jury indicted four men accused of brutally beating Joshua Chellew and causing his death in June.
Kemonta Deandre Bonds, 21, Antonio Shantwan Pass, 19, Jekari Oshay Strozier, 20, and Johnathan Donald Anthony, 18, were accused of malice murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, six counts of felony murder and four counts of violating Georgia’s criminal gang activity laws, prosecutors said.
Police said Chellew flashed blue colors claiming allegiance to the “Crips” street gang when he encountered the four men at a Mableton Parkway gas station in the early hours of June 30.
Pass, Anthony, Strozier and Bonds are members of the rival “Bloods” gang, and attacked Chellew, punching and kicking him until he retreated and eventually fell unconscious in the middle of the busy five-lane road, authorities said.
An on-coming car struck the 36-year-old Chellew as he lay in the roadway on Mableton Parkway, police said, and he later died at Grady Memorial Hospital.
Witnesses told police none of Chellew’s four black attackers tried to help their white victim or stop the car that hit him, sparking speculation on several web sites that the incident was racially motivated.
Police, however, have denied that racial animosity fueled the attack.
All four suspects remain in the Cobb County jail, where they were being held without bond.
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