Groups plan meeting over assault on teenager

Some are calling for Shomrim, the patrol group, to suspend its operations while they investigate claims against the member, Eliyahu Werdesheim, seen in the middle at right in a picture used in promotional materials for his security company. Arthur Abramson, executive director of the Jewish Council, has questioned why only Werdesheim has been charged by police and suspended by Shomrim given the allegations that two other patrol members were allegedly involved in the assault.

"I am strongly urging you to intervene and urge this private, unregulated, non-governmental organization to cease, and assist its activities [sic] pending a full and thorough investigation into the matter, and a dialogue between leaders of the African American and Jewish communities," wrote Rev. Cortly "C.D." Witherspoon Sr., an organizer with the Southern Christian Leadership Council of Baltimore, in a letter to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Werdesheim's attorney told The Sun that his client was observing the 15-year-old, who was in a residential neighborhood near Northwestern  High School at 12:45 p.m. on Oct. 19, when the boy became angry and attacked him with a stick (He told ABC that the weapon was a two-by-four with nails in it). It was the boy who called police, and detectives investigated for days before bringing charges. Werdesheim was given an opportunity to turn himself in, but did not and was picked up by the warrant apprehension task force.