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UNPROVOKED ATTACK
Victim Speaks At Alleged Attacker's Hearing

Reported by: Send eMail Elizabeth Norieka
Videographer: John Tincher
Web Producer: Jeff Morris
Reported: Aug. 21, 2012 7:00 PM EDT
Updated: Aug. 28, 2012 6:25 PM EDT

EYEWITNESS ONLINE WEBCAST VIDEO
C L I C K   T O   P L A Y
Charleston , Kanawha County , West Virginia

A man police say was attacked for no reason is now out of the hospital to face his alleged attacker in court.

John Paul Phillips testified Tuesday during Shanton Penn's preliminary hearing in Kanawha County Magistrate Court. He said Penn attacked him while he and a friend were walking down Capitol Street.

Phillips says he was in the hospital for eight days, seven of which he spent in the intensive care unit. He said he is now doing better and taking his recovery one day at a time.

A magistrate found probable cause to move this malicious wounding case forward.






A man is clinging to life after being brutally beaten in downtown Charleston, police say the attack was unprovoked, but they now have a person under arrest.

On Tuesday, Charleston Police arrested Shanton Penn. They say Penn was with a group of other men who violently attacked a stranger, John Paul Phillips, on the corner of Capitol Street and Kanawha Boulevard after Phillips left the bars early Friday morning.

"The victim was beaten pretty savagely on the corner of Capitol and the Boulevard and it seems like there was no good motive for that beating," Chief of Detectives, Lt. Steve Cooper, says.

Police say Phillips was punched in the face and fell to the ground, hitting his head on the curb. Phillips has been unconscious since the attack and has bleeding on his brain. He also has bleeding on his lung and is in respiratory failure, the criminal complaint says a result of being hit or kicked in the rib cage.

Friends of Phillips say he is a stand up guy and a father.

Penn is charged with malicious wounding. The beating is still under investigation and more arrests could be coming.



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