A 17-year-old beaten after he was knocked unconscious at Frisco's Stonebriar Centre is out of the hospital. He told NBC 5 on Monday night he's not sure how long the assault lasted, but he’s seen videos posted online that show him on the ground being stomped.
"I'm still here. That's all I think about," Josh Johnson said.
Johnson suffered deep cuts that required stitches on his chin and above one eye. He has a black eye and said doctors told him he suffered a fracture along his cheek bone.
Johnson said he was at the movies with friends Friday night. He said there was a verbal argument inside the theater about talking during a showing of Incredibles 2. He said when he left the theater, a man he didn't know punched him.
"The dude just hit me, on the floor and then when I was trying to get up, stepped on me," Johnson said.
Johnson's mother, Marie, said she can't bring herself to watch the full videos posted online. She said it's too difficult to see her son unconscious and helpless while the assault continued.
"He was laying there on the floor and to see his peers trying to come to his aide to get him out of harm's way but no adult helped him," Johnson said. "I just keep looking at him you know and I'm like wow, this really happened."
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Frisco Police Officer Radd Rotello said the community response to the department's request for leads in the case was overwhelming.
"That's a place where families go. They enjoy their time together, violence should not be something they have to worry about," Rotello said.
The tips helped lead police to two suspects in The Colony. Police in The Colony arrested Sincere Wheat and Jonathan Ekeocha-Ivy, both 18 years old. They’ve been transferred to the Collin County Jail where they are each facing an aggravated assault charge.
Frisco Stonebriar Centre didn't return an NBC 5 request for comment on the case. Frisco police said in addition to private security at the mall, Frisco officers routinely patrol. Mall security and police work together, Rotello said. The department expects to review this case during a routine training meeting next week.
