Witness: Attack on Hamilton Co. prosecutor's son racially-motivated
Jon Deters, girlfriend assaulted about midnight Sunday
The woman who called police to report the beating of the Hamilton County prosecutor’s son said the victim was targeted because of his race.
“It bothered me all weekend after witnessing that,” said the woman, who didn’t want to be identified. “Very disturbing; It was unnerving. It hurt me to see someone be beaten the way they were beating this man.”
Jon Deters, 23, son of Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, and his girlfriend were stopped by a group of teens about midnight Sunday. They are white; the teens that made up the group are black and so is the witness who called police.
“It was clearly some sort of racially-motivated attack. That was quite obvious in the slurs that were being thrown out,” the witness said.
She called 911, got out of her car, screamed at the teens and helped stop the attack.
Joe Deters said if not for that woman, “they would have killed him.”
The attack was brutal.
“They hit the guy and he was on the ground in the fetal position trying to cover his face and head. At this point, they were no longer throwing punches, they were stomping and kicking him,” the woman said. “They even stooped as low as to hit the lady in her face when they were attacking her boyfriend.”
Jon Deters was hospitalized overnight but released.
So far there have been no arrests.
This was one of five attacks reported to police over the course of the Memorial Day weekend outside the Taste of Cincinnati event boundaries.
The organizers of the event sent out a release about the incidents.
“This past weekend, more than 550,000 people safely enjoyed our Taste of Cincinnati. That’s in large part due to our excellent relationship with the Cincinnati Police Department. They report to us that over the course of the three days of this year’s Taste, they made 18 arrests on our site, all for minor violations, with two-thirds of those being for curfew violations. Those 18 represent .003 percent of those who attended this year’s Taste. As outlined by these numbers by Cincinnati police, any characterization that Taste of Cincinnati is anything but a safe environment is not based on facts,” Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber Vice President Patrick Sheeran said.
“Was our Taste of Cincinnati a particularly bad event? No, it wasn’t. We’ve had worse years at the Taste of Cincinnati, quite frankly, and the adjustments that had been made to this year’s event showed that. So now we’ve got some other adjustments to make. It will carry on,” Assistant Cincinnati Police Chief James Whalen said.
Deters said that when the teens are arrested, he will appoint a special prosecutor to review the case and pursue any possible charges.