White teen pleads guilty to trying to drown black boy as pal mocked victim, calling him ‘George Floyd’ because he couldn’t breathe


White teen pleads guilty to trying to drown black boy as pal mocked victim, calling him ‘George Floyd’ because he couldn’t breathe

By Jared Downing Published Dec. 29, 2024, 11:47 a.m. ET A 15-year-old white boy has pleaded guilty to trying to drown a black teen in a Cape Cod pond while spewing racial slurs — as a pal laughed and called the victim “George Floyd” because he couldn’t breathe. Heinous tormentor John Sheeran, who was 14 during the July 2023 attack, threw rocks at his 15-year-old victim and forced him to enter the pond, then shoved the boy’s head under the water while calling him the n-word, prosecutors said. Sheeran pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault with a dangerous weapon at Barnstable Juvenile Court, where a judge may choose to sentence him as an adult, the Cape Cod Times reported. It wasn’t immediately clear what sentence Sheeran could face either way. Sheeran’s alleged kid accomplice was slapped with a harassment charge for laughing and jeering at the victim while he begged for his life, the Times said. The teen, who is also white, will be charged as a juvenile. The sick attack began when the victim and Sheeran encountered each other at a pond in Chatham, MA, in July of last year. Sheeran threw rocks at his victim and forced the boy — who wore a lifejacket because he couldn’t swim — to get into the water, according to the Boston Globe.