Brooklyn Teen ​Uses Weaponized Selfie Stick to Win Street Fight: DA

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN, NY — An argument between a teen and a 20-something on the corner of Lawrence and Willoughby on a recent summer evening took a strange and sinister turn, according to Brooklyn police and prosecutors, when the teen began beating his adversary with a selfie stick.

Lavar Sprinkle, 27, of East New York, told cops that Demetrious Kelly, a 19-year-old Fort Greene resident, whipped out the selfie stick while the two were arguing in the street around 10 p.m. on July 18.

Kelly repeatedly struck Sprinkle with the stick, drawing blood from his hands and bruising his back, according to a criminal complaint filed by police against Kelly.

(It was the metal phone-holder on the end of the stick that caused the bleeding, Sprinkle later remembered in a phone interview with Patch.)

Sprinkle experienced "substantial pain" under the blows of the selfie stick, the complaint says.

The beating also caused Sprinkle to "fear further physical injury" and to "become alarmed and annoyed," the complaint says.

The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office has since hit 19-year-old Kelly with some pretty hefty charges — heftiest among them a felony count of "assault with intent to cause physical injury with a weapon."

In other words, Brooklyn prosecutors will be arguing in court that Kelly's selfie stick was used as a dangerous or deadly weapon.

Sprinkle, however — speaking over the phone Wednesday, around 10 days after the street fight — said he thinks the charges against Kelly are much too harsh.

Sprinkle said Kelly is an acquaintance of his — a friend of his baby mama. Sprinkle had been arguing with the woman they both know in Downtown Brooklyn that night, he said, when Kelly jumped in and threatened to fight Sprinkle in her defense.

The fight began as a fist fight, then escalated when Sprinkle began beating Kelly with his umbrella, he remembered. It was only then, he said, that Kelly reached for the selfie stick.

"I had the umbrella, so I used the umbrella," Sprinkle said. "He had the selfie stick, so he used the selfie stick."

Both men were taken down to the local police precinct after the fight, Sprinkle said — but only one was charged with anything.

Sprinkle guessed the difference in treatment had to do with Kelly's troubled history with law enforcement, which he said is well known around town — including some previous scuffles with officers in homeless shelters. (Patch could not confirm this information to be true. However, police did list Kelly's home address as a Fort Greene homeless shelter near the Farragut Houses.)

Patch has reached out to Kelly for his side of the story. We'll update if/when we hear back.

The 19-year-old's next court appearance in the case of the Downtown Brooklyn selfie-stick beating is scheduled for Sept. 14, 2016.

H/T DNAinfo