MASON CITY – A group of teens who are charged with crimes related to gang activity seem to have terrorized people across the city in recent days and kept at it after they were released from custody.
In one incident, at Roller City on the evening of October 7, a young person called police and alerted them that a group of teens were outside waiting and were going to attempt to attack him. Police came to the scene and made sure the alleged thugs did not injure the caller. Police later charged 4 teens in that incident, the same teens arrested on the night of October 9: 13-year-old Darrius Rashawn Bolden, 15-year-old Travis John Ulrich, 16-year-old Rudy Huerta and 16-year-old Karl Aaron Karzin. The property owner, Tyler Anderson, was notified by police and the incident could fall under the city’s nuisance code.
This same group of teens, on October 4 (Mason City homecoming day) around 5 PM went to the Ray Rorick Skate Park. The teens allegedly challenged another teen who was skating there to a fight; NIT is told they had been “after” him for weeks. He refused to fight, and when he turned his back, his pursuers struck him numerous times until he was unconscious. According to a family member who reported the incident to NIT, the teens continued to strike him after he was knocked out. He was hospitalized with serious injuries.
In an interesting note, two of these violent teens who claim to be a members of a gang (the names of which NIT has been asked not to disclose), live directly across the street from Mayor Eric Bookmeyer’s $340,000 home, in the Cultural Crescent, at the 500 block of East State Street. This general location has seen more than its share of serious crime over the last year or two, including a murder, drug deals, assaults, hardened criminals fleeing police and hiding, and more. Bookmeyer – said to be concerned about his property value and perhaps scared for his own safety – has acted in concert with the Chamber of Commerce and supported a “non-profit” group called Community Betterment, which has acquired properties nearby and proceeded to tear them down and move flood houses from the East Park area to replace them. In fact, NIT is told, the entire area from Georgia Avenue east to Carolina Avenue and State Street north to 2nd Street NE is being looked at for property acquisition and redevelopment.
On the day the teens were caught and arrested (October 9), they had allegedly dressed in black and taken BB guns and were shooting at cars at the 600 block of North Delaware. Numerous police responded and were able to catch them. This location is adjacent to a rental house at 702 North Delaware, where police were called to on October 3 when the landlord found narcotics and marijuana as he was cleaning the house.
Earlier that day, three of the teens – Bolden, Ulrich and Huerta – were at Southbridge Mall and had stolen $300 worth of merchandise from the Buckle.
Sources tell NIT that those teens and others associated with them had essentially bullied and threatened their own classmates at school for months, and kids were scared of them. The Mason City School District did cooperate with police in the investigation, which is on-going. The four teens that appear to have spearheaded this alleged on-going gang activity were jailed in one form or another Thursday night, October 9, but apparently were quickly released.
More trouble followed.
Police reported at least three new disturbances on Friday, October 10.
Rudy Huerta, age 16, entered the John Adams Middle School without permission that day just after noon. This is a school for 7th and 8th graders who are typically 13 or 14 years of age. Police said they filed a charge against him.
About an hour later, Huerta and Travis Ulrich were located at 14th Street NW and Washington Avenue after an assault was reported there. They were both arrested by Mason City police, they said.
However, at 6:16 PM Friday, police were called to Mason City High School to deal with an assault, and Huerta was charged in that incident.
NIT is seeking more information on these incidents.
All these juveniles are innocent until proven guilty.
