(Arizona) 'Gilbert Goons' gang is mostly white. Why were teens of color among early arrests?

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Source: Arizona Republic

'Gilbert Goons' gang is mostly white. Why were teens of color among early arrests?

Daniel Gonzalez, Arizona Republic
Mon, February 19, 2024 at 8:33 AM EST·14 min read

When 16-year-old Preston Lord died after being beaten by a group of teens at a Halloween Party in Queen Creek, Kristine and Robert Brennan began paying close attention to videos of similar attacks circulating on social media.

It was obvious to the Brennans — and other concerned parents and southeast Valley residents who saw the videos — that most of the attackers appeared to be white teens. They were known as the "Gilbert Goons."

"Everything I had heard or seen around the Gilbert Goons, the majority of these kids that were committing the crimes in the videos I was watching, they were, honestly, they were white kids," said Kristine Brennan, 48, a Gilbert resident and business owner.

But when the first arrests tied to the Goons attacks were announced in January by the Gilbert Police Department, it was the mug shots of two young men of color — one Black, one Latino — that were splashed all over local and national media, quickly turning them into poster boys for a string of violent teen attacks in the suburbs east of Phoenix, primarily Gilbert.

The arrests of two people of color surprised and confused many, ...

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Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/gilbert-goons-gang-mostly-white-133304055.html