Skateboarder 'Jumped by Blacks' Actually Hit a Wall

Rene Betancourt remains 'cloudy' about the incident
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 21, 2012 2:48 PM CDT

An avid skateboarder who said "four to five unknown black males" mugged him in a parking lot actually hurt himself while skateboarding, the Miami Herald reports. Rene Betancourt, 22, broke his skull and was hospitalized for two weeks while detectives searched for his assailants. In the end they found a parking lot surveillance video—of Betancourt knocking himself out cold by skateboarding into a concrete wall.

On that day his parents found him and drove him to a hospital, where doctors removed a swelling, potentially fatal blood clot from his brain. “For the way that my son looked, it seemed like an assault,” his mother said. Betancourt was released this week but remains "cloudy" about the incident, she added. Miami police say they won't file charges against him "because of the severity of his head injuries." Needless to say, he wasn't wearing a helmet. (More skateboarding stories.)

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