During the peek of the race riots last year a black man was caught on video viciously attacking a 12-year-old boy unprovoked. The footage showed Ethan Hagler from Cape Girardeau, Missouri dancing on the sidewalk alongside his dance instructor, Michael Curry. The footage went viral and police were able to apprehend the attack 8 days later.
Footage showed an SUV pulls up alongside the boy and his teacher when a man, now identified as Cedric Charles Moore Jr. jumps out and appears to drunkenly mock the child from behind. Unaware of the adult agitator, Hagler and his teacher continue with what they’re doing. That’s when Moore sucker-punches the child before feeling back to the SUV and speeding off.
Though police later caught Moore, details of his charges were recently released now that the case has been resolved. According to KSDK. Moore was sentenced to 7 years in prison for second-degree assault. Prosecutors claim that Moore was not charged with a hate crime because the current charge carried a stiffer punishment.
KSDK reported:
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. — The man who randomly sucker-punched a 12-year-old boy who was dancing on a sidewalk was sentenced to seven years is prison.
Moore previously pleaded guilty to first-degree endangering the welfare of a child and driving while under the influence. He was sentenced to probation for domestic assault in April 2019, and the mother of his child was granted an order of protection against him, also in 2019.
“The public has understandably expressed a desire to see Moore charged with a hate crime for this heinous crime,” the department said in a previous statement.
“In accordance with state statutes, this charge would only apply if the assault was categorized to a lesser degree, which would not be in the best interest of seeking true justice for the victim.”
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‘And all of a sudden I see him punch my kid, and instantly, my first reaction is, “What? Why?”‘ Curry told DailyMail in the days after the attack.
‘You know, I tried to chase (Moore) back to the car. And as soon as I got the car, I saw there was two other people in the car.
‘So I had to think about my child. He’s laying on the ground.
‘And from there, it was a lot of people that came up to help, especially Shaker’s, the bar downtown that we usually set up in front of.’
In the video, the boy is seen stumbling in an apparent daze after the sucker-punch. Hagler, who is a dancer at Fingerprint Dance Studio, suffered a bloody nose and a minor concussion. He was treated at the hospital and then released a short time later.