(Memphis) Police have two men in custody for allegedly terrorizing and torturing a group of mentally ill people. It happened in Southwest Memphis on W. Levi Road early Saturday morning when police say the two men barged into a care home and made all of the people strip off their clothes. Police say Tony Love beat them with a baseball bat and Anthony Oldham cut them with a knife.
They are thanking the police for saving their lives. The group of about 15 people who were rescued by police say they are still traumatized because they really believed they were going to die.
Kenneth Lamont McCline’s biggest battle may be his bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia, but today his mind is filled with another kind of terror.
“They were going to kill us,” he said tearing up.
He had to run naked out of the house into the protection of police when two men barged-in at 2 a.m. demanding everyone’s disability checks.
“They just pulled out a knife and started cutting people,” said Kenneth Doyle, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. “They made us get naked and lay down on the floor.”
“I had just got my check. He took a lot of money off all of us,” said McCline. “Half the women were raped. He beat them.”
“He raped them?” asked Reporter Sabrina Hall.
“He beat them. He was going to rape them. He beat them. By the grace of God, somebody called the police,” said McCline.
The mentally ill residents who live in the house were forced to strip naked and suffer a brutal beating police say at the hands of Oldham and Love. One of the victims who wouldn’t take off his clothes was the most seriously hurt.
“He cut one dude across the face,” said Doyle.
“They took everything I have and most of them got beat with baseball bats,” said McCline.
When police got there, their guns were drawn
“You went out the front door naked?” asked Hall.
“Yes. Butt naked,” said McCline
“Everybody else naked?” asked Hall.
“Yes ma’am.”
While the robbers are locked up now, Kenneth says the terror still lingers.
“It was horrible. I thought I was going to die,” said McCline.
He’d rather go back to where he came from than stay there, “I just came out of the hospital, the mental hospital. I can’t stay here because I’m scared for my life.”
MPD’s Crisis Intervention Team took McCline to the Memphis Mental Health Institute so he could get some help. An officer with the CIT unit says there are many homes around the South Memphis area that house the mentally ill but he’s never seen something like this happen before.
The man who suffered a knife wound across is face is still in the hospital.
The two men charged with aggravated robbery are being held in jail without bond.
