An Oakdale youth football coach was arrested Wednesday after allegedly being captured on video encouraging two juveniles to fight each other as at least 10 other boys watched.
The fight occurred sometime in the past week in the backyard of a residence somewhere in Oakdale, according to Oakdale police. The boys appear to be teenagers, and some of the spectators even younger.
Police Chief Jerry Ramar said the video was brought to the attention of police Tuesday night and the department received multiple tips about it.
“I am extremely disappointed and disturbed by the video,” he said. “This doesn’t represent the community of Oakdale.”
During the one-minute, 32-second video obtained by The Bee, the suspect repeatedly eggs on one of the boys, even directing him in how to fight.
“Don’t throw that lazy-ass kick again, bud,” the suspect tells a boy after he attempts to kick the other boy with his left leg.
“Jab, jab,” he says, and the boy, wearing black shorts, starts throwing punches at the other boy, who’s wearing patterned shorts.
The boys wrestle to the ground, where the boy in black shorts gets on top of the other boy and pummels him as the suspect instructs, “Square up, square up.”
The boy in black shorts appears to hit the other boy several dozen times in the back, head and torso.
The punches slow and the boy in the black shorts starts to get off the other boy.
“Nah, nah ... hey, give it to him, give it to him,” the suspect instructs, pushing him back toward the other boy, who is still on the ground. “Let him back up and then take him back down again.”
When the boy in the patterned shorts gets up, the boy in the black shorts yells, “You done?”
“Nah, he aint,” says the suspect. “No breaks.”
The video is filled with expletives, and the suspect and several of the minors repeatedly use the N-word.
“How does one of our community members who is supposed to be mentoring our kids talk like that?” Ramar said.
The suspect, identified as 33-year-old Oakdale resident Joshua Troxell, is a football coach for the Oakdale Stampede, according to police. It’s unknown if the boys who were fighting or any of the spectators were part of his team, and the organization could not immediately be reached for comment.
Troxell was arrested Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of felony child endangerment.
The penal code he was arrested under apples to people who, “under circumstances or conditions likely to produce great bodily harm or death, willfully causes or permits any child to suffer, or inflicts thereon unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering, or having the care or custody of any child, willfully causes or permits the person or health of that child to be injured, or willfully causes or permits that child to be placed in a situation where his or her person or health is endangered.”
One of the boys in the fight had minor injuries.
Troxell has not yet been formally charged or given a court date.
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