MILWAUKEE – A man yanked from his car and beaten by a mob of young people was doing better at a hospital Thursday, but police said there were still no arrests in the case.
"It's just senseless," Linda Johnson, wife of Samuel McClain, said in a statement released Wednesday by the hospital treating him. "If people could see him now compared to how he looked before, they'd be shocked."
Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Wauwatosa released a photo of the 50-year-old father of 12 that shows him with a bruised and swollen face from Monday evening's beating.
McClain was listed in satisfactory condition Thursday after initially being listed in critical condition.
A group of as many as 15 youths punched, kicked and jumped on McClain after he honked for them to move out of the street.
Police were questioning people who might have witnessed the attack or taken part, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said. No one has been charged in the beating, but some people were arrested who had prior warrants pending, she said Thursday.
The statement from Johnson was the first time McClain's family commented publicly. She said her husband was a good father who wouldn't have done anything to start the beating, one of a string of mob attacks in Milwaukee since 2002.
"I thought that the last time this happened in our community that people would wake up," his wife said. "It's time for this to stop. Parents need to sit down and talk with their children about what's right and what's wrong."
State Rep. Leon Young said he plans to introduce a bill in the Legislature early next year that would toughen the penalties for those participating in group assaults.