2 arrested after violent attack on teens at Stonebriar Centre
FRISCO, Texas - Police have arrested two people in a brutal beating in Frisco.
The victim, Josh Johnson, is recovering and spoke exclusively with FOX 4.
“It was just horrible. How do you do a person like that, though?” he said.
Video posted to social media shows the 17-year-old from Little Elm being beaten and dragged at Stonebriar Centre. At least one man stomped his head. The video is too graphic to show in its entirety.
Josh’s mother, Marie Johnson, won’t even watch it.
“Just pure evil. No concern for life,” she said.
Josh says he and his friend, 16-year-old J.J. Baldridge, were at a Friday night showing of Incredibles 2 when a man behind them in the theater started yelling for everyone to be quiet or else.
“Just kept nagging,” he recalled. “Then he pointed at him, and he pointed at me.”
Josh says the sucker punch came once they got out of the theater, knocking him to the ground. He has stitches and fractures in his face to show for it.
“He stepped on my head,” Josh said. “Everybody just started screaming, recording and all that. I heard people laughing, too.”
J.J. says he came to Josh’s defense and then got jumped himself.
“I just felt so mad,” J.J. said. “And that’s when I had to fight for him. When he had tried to get back up, that’s when the dude in the orange hat stomped on him, and I hit him.”
As the two laid unconscious, people recorded video rather than calling for help.
"I don't know if people are just scared or they're in it for the entertainment, I don't know,” said J.J.’s mother, Tamara Baldridge. “But I just think the social media itself has gone too far.”
The video and tips from the public did allow Frisco PD to identify 18-year-olds Sincere Wheat and Jonathan Ivy. They were arrested in The Colony and both charged with aggravated assault.
Josh’s music leader at church, Kevin Davis, is thankful for the arrest, saying parents shouldn't fear allowing their kids to see a movie on a Friday night.
“What they did definitely could have killed him, or he could have been brain dead,” Davis said.
“It is what it is. It happened,” Josh said. “At least I’m still here.”
Sincere Wheat has a criminal history. He's pleaded guilty to assaulting a public servant. There have been questions as to where mall security was at the time. We have contacted the mall's public relations team but have not yet heard back.