MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Nearly six weeks after a mob attack at a Crosstown gas station, police say they’ve caught the man who started the incident.
Cordero Ragland, 23, was arrested Wednesday on charges of aggravated riot and assault with bodily harm.
Police believe Ragland is the man seen in surveillance video punching victim Orrden Williams in the back of the head at the BP station at Poplar & Cleveland back on April 10th.
Police say that’s when a group of teenagers from Northwest Prep Academy jumped in and attacked Williams and damaged a woman’s car.
Ragland is the 11th person to be charged in connection with the attack.
The other suspects charged are all teenagers.
Four of them were charged as adults.
“Since he’s an adult, he probably triggered the kids because they were probably following his ignorant lead,” said Williams Thursday.
Williams is happy that Ragland is now facing charges, but says the fact that an adult was charged for starting the attack is upsetting.
“I need to see him punished. I’m glad that MPD and the media did what they did,” said Williams.
Court records show, detectives identified Ragland as the initial attacker last month, but it took officers three weeks to track him down.
A woman too afraid to be identified by WREG says detectives showed up at her home a few times to arrest Ragland.
Her home is where police thought Ragland lived. The address is listed in his Shelby County criminal history several times.
Last year, Ragland was accused of beating up a teen near Elizabeth Malone Park.
According to court records, that attack was also caught on camera.
Those charges were thrown out.
But Williams hopes the BP surveillance video will force Ragland’s new charges to stick and keep him behind bars for a very long time.
“I don’t believe, he needs to be out right now. He likes a scene. He likes a mob, he likes a riot,” said Williams.
