James Anderson was beaten and run over merely because he was the first black man the pack of teens saw |
They climbed into a Jeep Cherokee and Dedmon's F-250. At the western edge of Jackson, they pulled off the freeway and into a motel parking lot. They approached the first black man they saw, 49-year-old auto worker James Craig Anderson, who was standing near his car.
The punks jumped out of their trucks and began to beat Anderson senseless. A motel security camera caught them pummeling Anderson to the ground and repeatedly returning to deliver more blows while yelling racial slurs.
At one point, a security guard witnessed one of the teens raising his fist and yelling, "White power."
After the beating, a group of teens got back into the Cherokee and fled. But Dedmon wasn't finished.
On motel security tape shown by CNN, Dedmon, with two girls in his cab, can be seen backing up his truck. Then he lines up Anderson in his sights as the injured man stumbles through the parking lot.
A moment later, Dedmon can be see driving over Anderson as the truck jumps when it hits his body.
According to accomplices, Dedmon was thrilled by the unprovoked attack and his newfound might. They say he was laughing and called his friends in the Cherokee to boast that "I ran over that nigger."
Dedmon has now been charged with murder and faces the possibility of a double-life sentence. But though Anderson appears to have been initially beaten by multiple teens, only one, John Aaron Rice, 18, has been charged with assault.