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Home > All News > 2008 News
'Hawgz' gang suspects charged in Marin City festival attackArticle Launched: 10/06/2008 06:38:56 PM PDT Three Marin City gang suspects accused of attacking a visiting family at a community festival were arraigned on assault charges Monday. Joshua Bell Garrard, 18, Shamron Joshua Mitchell, 19, and Timothy Leevester Hall, 20, were charged with assault by means to produce great bodily injury, according to a complaint filed by Deputy District Attorney Dori Ahana. Garrard was also charged with vandalism and assault with a deadly weapon - a metal pole - while Hall got an additional charge of receiving stolen property, a cell phone. The suspects were also charged with committing the crimes as members of the "200 Block Young Hawgz," a reputed street gang operating in the 200 block of Drake Avenue, part of the Marin City public housing complex. All three suspects live in Marin City. A 16-year-old Marin City boy is facing similar charges in juvenile court, said District Attorney Ed Berberian. The boy's name was not released because he is a minor. The attack occurred shortly before 6 p.m. Sept. 1 in the area of Drake Avenue, where the Labor Day street festival was being held. A group of young men approached the visiting family and challenged them to a fight, sheriff's officials said. The family decided to leave the festival to prevent a confrontation, but they were followed and surrounded by the group and additional challengers. At least four males punched and kicked the victims and beat them with sticks and metal poles, deputies said. The victims sought shelter inside a nearby residence, and the suspects continued the attack by throwing a bicycle and rocks through the window of the home. Sheriff's investigators suspect the victims, a family of six ranging from 17 to 49 years old, were attacked because they were not from Marin City. They live outside the county. The suspects were identified through information from the victims and witnesses. But supporters of Mitchell, a graduate of San Andreas High School in Larkspur, denied there is such a thing as the Young Hawgz. "We've been in Marin City our entire life. It's no gang," said Mitchell's twin sister, Shienna, who came to court Monday. She and a friend, 19-year-old Shaniece Coleman, also said the alleged victims provoked a confrontation by insulting and "disrespecting" the locals at the annual festival. "We're a community," said Coleman, a graduate of Redwood High School. "We've never had a gang in Marin City in our lives." Mitchell's mother, Kathy Buquia, said her son's arrest was based on nothing more than neighborhood "hearsay." She said sheriff's deputies broke her door in Thursday and held guns on her family, including her 2-year-old grandchild, while they looked for the suspect. "I didn't have no pants. It was disgraceful," said Buquia, who said she broke down and cried during the incident. "They handcuffed my three children. They took my kids' computers that they got for graduation." Garrard, Mitchell and Hall appeared together for arraignment Monday before Commissioner Randolph Heubach, who denied a public defender's request to lower their bail. Mitchell and Garrard are being held in lieu of $200,000 bail; Hall is being held without bail. Plea hearings are pending.
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