WTF? "The Knockout Game". it's evidently spreading- and trending on social media

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57. St. Louis 'knockout game' victim enraged that suspects walked free

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/st-louis-knockout-game-victim-enraged-that-suspects-walked-free/article_6dc55245-69ec-51a0-8f5c-5bbb95777a9d.html

St. Louis 'knockout game' victim enraged that suspects walked free
January 12, 2012 12:05 am • BY JENNIFER MANN • [e-mail]> 314-621-5804 AND JOEL CURRIER • [e-mail] > 314-340-8256

ST. LOUIS • The middle-schoolers were looking for a random person to beat up on Oct. 21, hoping to prove their mettle to a group of teens at Roosevelt High School who called themselves "TKO" or "The Knock Out" clan, police say.

They found their victim in Matt Quain, kicking and punching him in the face, breaking his jaw and knocking him down on South Grand Boulevard before walking off.

The 13-year-old girl who relayed this to police became the key witness against seven juveniles, ages 12-14, all from Fanning Middle School. But at the last minute before trial this week, she failed to show up, and the case fell apart, as was first reported Wednesday on STLtoday.com.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/knockout-game-case-shocked-st-louis-then-fell-apart/article_cdf5032a-b65e-51e0-a84e-de0f0ce0c5f8.html

'Knockout game' case shocked St. Louis, then fell apart
March 04, 2012 10:15 am • BY TODD C. FRANKEL • [e-mail] > 314-340-8110

The summer of 2011 had started quietly enough, with no hint that knockout assaults would be a problem in the fall.

This was a surprise. In April, four teens had attacked a 72-year-old Vietnamese immigrant and his wife as they walked home from a market in Dutchtown. Hoang Nguyen died. His wife was hurt. An 18-year-old man, who allegedly told police he just wanted to knock someone out, was charged with first-degree murder.

"Knockout game" became the crime's coarse moniker. But it didn't feel like the start of something new. No one saw it as the sign of a wave of random assaults. After all, violent crime rates were falling across the city.

Then, in late August, several bicyclists were jumped in the Shaw neighborhood. In September, a group of teens pummeled a 59-year-old man as he walked near Grand and Gravois Road. Police rounded up the Knockout King and the other teens. But the pedestrian said he never got a good look at his attackers