Police probe grandma's role in grandson's street brawl

Authorities in Wilmington, Del., are considering whether to file charges against a grandmother who is shown in a YouTube video weighing into a street fight between two elementary-school age boys, screaming at her grandson to punch his opponent, The News Journal reports.

The video was made in March, but only recently began circulating, News Journal reporter Andrew Staub writes.

In the video, the two young boys are in the street, facing each other, staring each other down when a grandmother of one of them enters the fray.

"Beat his f------ a--," she screams at her grandson. "Beat his a--! He hit you! Hit him back! Hit him! Fight him!"

The punch out ends with the woman grabbing her grandson's shoulder, pulling him away and saying, "Now c'mon. You fought him back."

The video began circulating last week among schoolchildren and community leaders on social media websites like Facebook.

As more people viewed it and discussed it, the outrage and criticism began to mount from neighborhood leaders, youth advocates and even the state Attorney General's Office, The News Journall reports.

Police then contacted state social services agencies, police spokesman officer Mark Ivey says, while detectives interviewed the boys and the woman in the video.

The boys were friends who had been arguing and fighting for some time, with one of them bullying the other, Ivey says.

The grandmother told police she was urging her grandson to fight the other boy because "she was attempting to teach him how to stand up for himself," Ivey says.

He says authorities are considering whether to file charges.

Adults should protect children, not put them in harm's way, says Deputy Attorney General Patricia Dailey Lewis, director of the office's family division, according to the newspaper.

The News Journal says that some community leaders who viewed the video say they understood the mindset of a guardian or parent who might encourage a child to fight to prove their mettle. Other leaders say the action is inexcusable, no matter the circumstance.

All say the woman erred in her handling of the situation, the newspaper reports.