‘All a Bunch of Bulls–t’: Black Teen Who Stopped Attack on Unconscious Friend Faces Six Charges Over Shotgun Cops Never Say They Found
A viral video showing a young white man repeatedly slapping an apparently unconscious Black teenager ignited outrage online.
But charging documents reveal a more complicated series of allegations that ultimately resulted in criminal charges against all three young men involved.
The video shows Camden Yowell, 20, striking Avery Samuels, 19, during a house party in Hampstead, Maryland. Rakim Warfield, 19, then appears to punch Yowell in the back of the head, stopping the assault.
Authorities charged Yowell with first- and second-degree assault over the recorded encounter. They charged Samuels with misdemeanor stalking and trespassing following his alleged return to the property.
Warfield faces two felonies and four misdemeanors. However, prosecutors say they did not charge him for intervening in the assault shown in the video.
Instead, authorities accuse Warfield of leaving the party, returning in a ski mask with a shotgun and threatening partygoers. His father, Raheim Warfield, vehemently denies those allegations.
Accounts of what happened before and after the recorded assault differ sharply, according to charging documents and police statements obtained by Atlanta Black Star.
Samuels said someone invited him to the July 18 party. However, Yowell claimed Samuels arrived uninvited, damaged property and repeatedly refused to leave.
The allegations involving Warfield also extend beyond the confrontation captured on video.
Carroll County Sheriff’s Deputy M. Swinton responded to the house party at about 12:48 a.m. on July 19, according to the charging documents.
Two young men accused Warfield of assaulting them. One was Yowell, who was accused separately of striking Samuels.
Yowell told deputies that he was assaulting an unidentified person when Warfield allegedly punched him from behind.
“I contacted victim [name redacted] in the driveway. [Name redacted] explained when he began assaulting an unknown subject in the garage of the residence, Rakim Kordae Warfield struck him from behind,” the charging document states.
“[Name redacted] then placed Warfield in a headlock before releasing him and shaking hands before the two separated.”
According to the documents, Warfield briefly left the party before allegedly returning with a shotgun.
“Warfield briefly left the party before returning with a shotgun and pointing it at [name redacted] in the driveway from less than 10 feet away,” the document states.
Deputies obtained a photograph of Warfield through the National Crime Information Center, an FBI-administered law enforcement database. They then showed it to alleged witnesses.
One witness said they were “11 out of 10” confident that the photograph showed the person who assaulted him and pointed a firearm.
Another witness identified Warfield with “6 out of 10” confidence, even though the alleged gunman’s face was reportedly covered.
“Several witnesses completed signed statements confirming they observed Warfield point a firearm at [name redacted] while wearing a ski mask,” the document states.
The documents indicate that approximately 25 people attended the party. No video showing the alleged shotgun encounter had been publicly released as of publication.
The charging documents reviewed by Atlanta Black Star also do not state that investigators recovered a shotgun allegedly connected to Warfield.
His father called the firearm allegation false in a Sept. 11 Facebook post sharing the viral video.
“(They’re) also trying to say he pull a shotgun out and threatened partygoer(s) which is a lie because when the cops searched his car and my house they didn’t find a shotgun so it’s all a bunch of bullsh**t,” Raheim Warfield wrote.
Rakim Warfield faces two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment.
Each first-degree assault count carries a maximum sentence of 25 years. Each second-degree assault count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
Reckless endangerment is a misdemeanor under Maryland law, but each count carries a maximum five-year sentence.
Yowell faces first- and second-degree assault charges, according to separate charging documents.
Those documents include a handwritten statement from Samuels, who appears unconscious in the video.
Samuels said he passed out inside the garage after attending the party. He said Yowell assaulted him before another person intervened and drove him home.
Samuels said he did not learn about the assault until the following evening, when someone showed him the video.
He said he returned to Yowell’s home on July 19 because he had left his phone there.
Samuels showed the video to Yowell’s mother and said he intended to file a complaint with authorities. According to Samuels, she asked him not to report the assault.
“Camden had no reason to assault a man that was unconscious laying down,” Samuels wrote. “I felt like there is many other ways to handle it.”
“But he choose to hit me over my head. There was a big crowd around the garage watching it all play out and people saying stop until [name redacted] saved me.”
Yowell gave authorities a different account.
He claimed Samuels arrived “uninvited” and disregarded repeated requests to leave the property.
“I had witnessed him break a glass bottle on my back patio,” Yowell wrote in a statement included in the documents against Samuels.
“After seeing this, I had asked the individual to leave my property and he disregarded my request.”
Yowell wrote that Samuels broke a bottle, entered the garage and lay on a wooden slab. His account does not mention repeatedly slapping Samuels in the face.
According to Yowell, Samuels left the property and returned at about 2 p.m. on July 19 to retrieve his car.
Yowell said Samuels returned again at about 10:30 p.m. to search for his phone inside the garage.
After finding the phone, Samuels allegedly entered the house to speak with Yowell’s parents about reporting the recorded assault.
“After the conversation with my parents ended my mom was ushering him out the front door,” Yowell wrote.
“This is where we see a tall, masked individual standing around the corner of my house. This individual was in an all-black outfit and, in my opinion, trying to be threatening.”
Yowell did not identify the masked person in that statement. He also did not claim that the person carried a weapon.
Yowell wrote that Samuels and the masked person then left the property.
Authorities later charged Samuels with misdemeanor stalking and trespassing. Although Samuels said he had been invited to the party, the charges relate to his alleged return to the property.
Atlanta Black Star made multiple attempts to contact Raheim Warfield but received no response to interview requests.
Atlanta Black Star also communicated with Samuels’ mother. She declined to comment publicly because of the pending charges against her son.
The video appears to have begun circulating publicly on Friday, Sept. 11, when Raheim Warfield posted it on his Facebook page.
In the post, the elder Warfield said prosecutors offered his son a proposed plea agreement carrying 25 years in prison, with 20 years suspended.
Under the terms described in the post, Rakim Warfield would serve five years in prison.
Online court records show that authorities transferred the cases against Warfield and Yowell from Carroll County District Court to Circuit Court.
The transfer does not establish guilt. Maryland District Court handles misdemeanors and certain felonies, while Circuit Court handles jury trials.
Court records show that authorities charged Warfield, Yowell and Samuels. However, the available documents do not independently establish whether authorities arrested all three men.
Some social media users have framed Warfield’s prosecution as punishment for stopping the assault captured on video.
The Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office disputes that characterization and says the charges involve a separate alleged confrontation.
“As a result of Camden Yowell’s actions as they are allegedly depicted in a video, Mr. Yowell was charged with a crime,” the office said in a press release.
“Mr. Warfield was not charged with committing a crime because of his actions in the video. Warfield was charged with the crime of First-Degree Assault … because Mr. Warfield is alleged to have left the scene of the initial incident and subsequently returned later allegedly with a shotgun and allegedly pointed the shotgun at persons.”