KSTW wrote:SPOKANE, Wash. (CBS Seattle/AP) — Police in Spokane, Wash., say they have arrested one of two teens suspected of fatally beating an 88-year-old veteran of World War II who had survived the Battle of Okinawa.
Authorities say the two young African American men, between 16 and 19 years old, approached Delbert Belton in his car at random Wednesday night outside an Eagles Lodge as he was waiting for a friend.
Belton was found by police with serious head injuries and died in the hospital Thursday.
Belton’s daughter-in-law tells KREM-TV that the suspects beat him with flashlights.
“They used those great big heavy flashlights,” Bobbie Belton said. “The doctors said he was bleeding from all parts of his face.”
Spokane Police say they have surveillance images of the attackers — at least one of them has been taken into police custody.
The Spokesman-Review reports Belton was born and raised in Spokane before he joined the Army. Friends say he was shot in the leg during the Battle of Okinawa, where thousands of American soldiers died.
“He was an Army veteran,” Glenn Longsdorff, Belton’s roommate of four years, told KREM. “In fact, he was shot when he was 18-years-old on the beaches of Okinawa. He’ll do anything in the world for anybody.”
After the war, he spent 33 years working for Kaiser Aluminum, before retiring in 1982.
Belton’s sister, Alberta Tosh, told the newspaper her brother “went through hell” during his years in the Army. Though she was too little to remember her brother going to war, she does remember how reluctant he was to talk about the bloody Okinawa battle in 1945.
“I know he came home shell-shocked pretty bad,” she said.
Belton lived a full and busy life, Tosh said. He loved to dance, repair old cars and was always surrounded by close friends and loved ones.
“He was a good guy who would help anybody if they needed help,” she said.
A friend, Ted Denison, said he was planning to go to the Eagles Lodge when he heard Belton had died.
“He put his life on the line for our country to come home and 60 years later? Get beat to death?” Denison said. “That’s not right.”
Denison, a veteran himself, said he used to tease Belton about his membership in the Eagles Lodge, saying that place was for “old fogies.” He didn’t make it to the lodge in time.
“I don’t care who you are, you don’t beat up an old man,” Denison said. “You’re supposed to respect your elders, not beat them to death.”
Another close friend, Lill Duncan, said she can’t imagine what drove anyone to kill him.
“He lived his life every day to make somebody else happy. It wasn’t all about him. It was about what he could do for everybody else.”
I wonder what we are going to hear about this nationally - especially after three thugs killed Chris Lane.KXLY wrote:SPOKANE, Wash. -
WWII veteran Delbert Belton survived being wounded in action during the Battle of Okinawa only to be beaten and left for dead by two teens at the Eagles Lodge in Spokane on Wednesday evening.
Belton, 88, succumbed to his injuries Thursday morning at Sacred Heart Medical Center.
Witnesses say Belton was in the parking lot of the Eagles Lodge at 6410 N. Lidgerwood, adjacent to the Eagles Ice-A-Rena, around 8 p.m. Wednesday when the two male suspects attacked him as he was about to head inside to play pool.
Police responded with K-9s to track the suspects' scent but were not able to locate them.
"It does appear random. He was in the parking lot, it appears he was assaulted in the parking lot and there was no indication that he would have known these people prior to the assault," Spokane Police Major Crimes Detective Lieutenant Mark Griffiths said.
Belton died from his injuries Thursday morning at Sacred Heart Medical Center.
"Shorty," as he was known by his friends at the Eagles Lodge, served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific during WWII and was shot in the leg during the Battle of Okinawa. He went on to work at Kaiser Aluminum at the company's Trentwood plant for more than 30 years. Belton's wife passed away several years ago.
He loved playing pool, even though he claimed he was no good at it and had been a member of the Eagles Lodge for the last four months. In addition to playing pool he loved working on cars.
Shorty was Ted Denison's best friend of 23 years; the two played pool occasionally and worked on cars daily.
"He was always there for me when I needed him," Denison said. "We'd joke back and forth. We were always having fun, some sort of fun."
He was the kind of nice old man who'd become your friend in minutes.
"Probably every time I come into town, he'd have a project for me to do," Denison said. "I thought of him more as a dad than I did a friend really."
Now, with the suspects still at large and the Spokane Police Department working to track them down, Shorty's friends are hoping for justice.
"I don't understand how somebody could do this. I really don't," Denison said.
Spokane police are looking for two male suspects in the attack. They said the suspects are African Americans between 16 and 19 years old. One suspect was described as heavy set and wearing all black clothing. The other was described as being about 6 feet tall and 150 pounds. There was no description of what clothing the second suspect was wearing other than a silk do-rag.
Police investigating the deadly attack on Belton have also obtained surveillance footage from the scene. Click this link to see still images of the two suspects in the attack.
