Teen severely injured during mailbox-smashing 'game' - Gate House

Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)

2015-07-05

Document text

By Grants Pass Daily Courier October 06. 2014 4:23PM Teen severely injured during mailbox-smashing 'game' A 16-year-old boy was airlifted to a Portland hospital with severe head injuries after a game of "mailbox baseball" went awry in Grants Pass early Sunday morning, police said. The "game" involves smashing mailboxes with a baseball bat from a moving vehicle, police said in a press release sent out Sunday evening. Officers learned of the incident after several friends brought the injured teen to Asante Three Rivers Medical Center at about 4:10 a.m. Sunday. The friends gave police accounts of what happened, but their stories did not match up and a detective was called in to investigate. Subsequent interviews revealed that the group of friends was in a motor home playing "mailbox baseball" in the 1700 block of Highland Avenue with a wooden stick and a metal baseball bat when things went wrong. According to police, the front-seat passenger leaned out of the car and hit a telephone pole with the bat, and lost control of it. The bat went flying backward and hit the 16-year-old, who was watching through a rear window. The teen was badly injured, and was flown to Portland for further treatment after being stabilized at Three Rivers. The driver of the motor home, 21-year-old Breanna Allene White, was arrested and booked into jail on a second-degree assault charge. A passenger, 21-year-old Vega Shaw Russell, was booked on a charge of third-degree assault. Eighteen-year-old Dennis Allen Mosier, a second passenger, was charged with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution. A third passenger — another 16-year-old boy, who was not injured — was booked into juvenile custody on a charge of hindering prosecution and a parole violation. Police did not have an update on the wounded teen's condition. They said additional charges against the boy's friends are likely. Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the Grants Pass police detectives at 541-450-6260. http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141006/NEWS/141009779 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->