3 teens arrested for beating homless people in Salem; 2 still sought

SALEM, Mass. — Salem police are searching for two teens and have charged three others in connection with violent attacks on homeless people.

Barry Bullock still has five staples in his head from the brutal attack near the Peabody Essex Museum on February 13.

Bullock told FOX25 he and his girlfriend were sleeping on the sidewalk when three teens wearing masks surrounded them.

“It just all happened so fast, you know what I mean?” Bullock said. “All of a sudden, we heard a Taser sound, that ‘brrr’ sound -- you can always tell that electric sound. And I looked at my girlfriend and I said, ‘we're in trouble because we’re cornered.’”

He said they sleep there because they feel safe and there are surveillance cameras watching them.Police say it was those cameras that helped them catch the suspects.

“He hit me in the head and he said, give me everything you got. And I said, ‘look we’re homeless, we have nothing,’” Bullock explained.

He told FOX25 the teens shocked his girlfriend with the stun gun and took off.

In the days since, the couple says they've felt increasingly vulnerable.

In fact, the couple was sleeping nearby when police say the teens struck again last Sunday, using the stun gun on another homeless man at the Salem Armory.

But museum surveillance cameras captured that attack, leading to the arrest of a 16-year-old, a 17-year-old and 18-year-old Luis Vazquez.

With three of the five suspects in jail, Bullock and his girlfriend say they feel some measure of safety, but no sense of peace.

“When blood is drawn, it's not funny; because people get hurt,” Bullock said.

Investigators say they are still looking for two more suspects. The three charges remain in jail without bail.

Cox Media Group