The victim was identified as Zemir Begic, 32, of the 4200 block of Miami Street. He had injuries to his head, abdomen, face and mouth. He was taken to St. Louis University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Police said Begic was in his vehicle in the 4200 block of Itaska about 1:15 a.m. when several juveniles approached on foot and began damaging it. Begic got out and the juveniles began yelling at him and striking him with hammers. Two male juveniles, 16 and 15, were taken into custody.
Police are still searching for a 16-year-old black male and a 15-year-old Hispanic.
Dozens of people from the Bosnian community spilled out into the street, Sunday evening, to protest the violence.
“We’re just angry because we’re trying to protect our community,” said Mirza Nukic, 29, of St. Louis. “We’re just trying to be peaceful.”
Nukic was among at least 50 people, mostly, if not all Bosnians, who briefly blocked Gravois Avenue at Itaska Street on Sunday night to protest the killing. The intersection was near where Zemir Begic, a Bosnian man who moved to St. Louis this year, was attacked by at least three teens with hammers early Sunday.
The motive for the hammer attack has not been released, but it would not be a stretch to link the violence to Ferguson.
In the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, there were scores of “justice for Trayvon” retaliatory attacks on whites throughout the nation. Some of them, like the attack in St. Louis Sunday morning, involved hammers.
Breitbart’s Warner Todd Huston picked up on a US News story, Sunday, that featured a Ferguson “protester” calling for blood.
“Some people are going to have to die for the cause,” Jay Daniels, 27, of Charlotte said. “It’s sad to say, but this is the new civil rights movement for our generation, and there will be casualties and there should be bloodshed.”
This “new civil rights movement” was built on top of the Ferguson Grand Jury’s decision not to indict an innocent white police officer who used deadly force to defend himself against an violent black teenager who had just attacked him, tried to wrestle his gun from him, and robbed a convenience store.
That’s the “cause” that may cost more innocent lives.