Robbers Cut Off Teen's Fingertip After He Refused To Give Them $5

[matcom]

<snip>

Three robbers cut off the fingertip of a teen who refused to give them a $5 bill outside an Eastpointe convenience story early Saturday. An onlooker intervened and may have helped save the boy from more violence.

Police said the 16-year-old, who is from Detroit, was walking from a friend's home in Eastpointe to a 7-Eleven at 9 Mile and Hayes around 1:35 a.m. when three teenagers drove up and demanded money.

When the boy refused to give them a $5 bill he had in his hand, the robbers began to beat him outside a business next to the 7-Eleven. During the scuffle, one of the males pulled out a knife and cut off the top half-inch of his right pinky.

"This is odd because we don't get a lot of street robberies out here," said Eastpointe Police Lt. Leo Borowsky. "Hopefully, we can get the perpetrators off the streets, because what they did is sick."

The boy was taken to Bi-County Hospital in Warren and was later released. His finger could not be reattached, Borowsky said.

http://www.freep.com/news/locmac/policebrief18e_20050818.htm