UPDATE: Family, friends plan vigil after beating victim dies; suspects charged with murder
COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. (WTVR)—Two arrests have been made after a local man, Rusty Mack, was beaten so badly, that he’s barely clinging to life.
Police say his estranged wife was involved, and neighbors witnessed the violent attack.
CBS 6 interviewed witnesses who fear to show their faces, and they say they will never forget what they saw happen.
They recounted a guy and a girl, standing in the driveway, hollering upstairs to their neighbor.
They coaxed him out of his apartment, two adults and a teen girl, and then began assaulting him.
"They wrestled from one end of the driveway to the other,” says a witness.
They all ended up in the street.
“He was talking with his wife and she pushed him, he fell to the ground, and as he was getting up, this girl comes around and kicks him,” says the witness.
When police arrive at the 1100 block of Shuford Avenue, they found the victim lying on the ground, motionless.
Neighbors feared for his life.
Police arrested 19-year-old Ashley Kate Mack and 20-year-old Jonathan Brice Guy.
Mack is the victim's estranged wife.
The situation was “some what domestic related,” Sgt. Rob Ruxer, with the Colonial Heights police says, and "all these parties were known to each other."
Now Mack and Guy face Class Three felonies, including assault by mob because, in this case, they caused severe injury to the victim.
“It’s touch and go, I mean, he's fighting for his life, basically, over at MCV right now,” Kim Turner, friend of victim says. “There's swelling on the brain, he's had bleeding as a result of the attack this week."
His family his by his side at the hospital.
Neighbors say they're glad for the quick arrests, but concerned about the 22-year-old victim.
“He was a good neighbor, you could ask him to do anything for me and he would always come and do it,” says one witness.
Both Mack and Guy remain behind bars without bond. Guy also faces two misdemeanor charges, misdemeanor assault and intoxicated in public.
