A high school football player who allegedly killed another teen during a Halloween party in Arizona bragged about the brutal beatdown — gloating “I guess I’m just too strong,” police said.
Talan Renner, 17, faces charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the Oct. 28 attack on 16-year-old Preston Lord, who died from his injuries two days after being assaulted at a Halloween party in Queen Creek, about 40 minutes east of Phoenix.
Renner, one of seven suspects charged in the deadly incident, boasted to a friend online that he mistakenly “killed” Lord during a fight at the party, insisting he was unaware of his own strength, according to a police report obtained by KTVK.
“I got in a fight, a big group fight and I accidentally killed a kid,” Renner wrote in a Snapchat message, police said. “I guess I’m just too strong.”
Renner also acknowledged the attack as he frantically fled the party with three other suspects, including 19-year-old Taylor Sherman, 17-year-old Jacob Meisner and 20-year-old Dominic Turner, police said.
“I might have hospitalized that kid,” Renner told Sherman as they left, according to police. “I hit him pretty hard.”
Cops responded to a chaotic scene at the huge Halloween party packed with an estimated 250 teens and as many as 30 cars parked outside.
“Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get killed,” one witness told police. “These kids have weapons on them.”
Another caller saw some of the mayhem unfold.
“We’ve got kids running with beer bottles,” the witness told police. “They’re hitting each other. We just saw two car accidents. I think they’re two drunks.”
As many as 15 suspects wearing ski masks attacked Lord, one witness said. The teen died from his extensive injuries at a hospital on Oct. 30.
A dispute over a gold chain sparked the deadly beatdown, investigators believe. Turner, also known as “D Money,” had allegedly stolen the chain from a friend of Lord’s, police said.
Renner, who remains jailed on $1 million bond, repeatedly struck the victim before other partygoers joined the onslaught.
“Talan said he hammer-pounded Preston in the face four times and everyone surrounded him and started kicking him,” a friend of Renner’s family told cops.
An unidentified person then climbed atop the injured teen and “danced” on him, authorities said.
“When the male was on the ground, the group of kids began recording and ‘humping’ the individual on the ground before they all ran away,” another witness told authorities.
A seventh suspect in Lord’s death, Treston Billey, 18, has been charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping. All of the accused attackers were ordered held on $1 million bond and have pleaded not guilty.
“This is a culmination of an extensive investigation and a critical step in getting justice for Preston,” Queen Creek Police Chief Randy Brice told reporters earlier this month. “To Preston’s family, we thank you for your patience and faith in our efforts. We cannot imagine what you have endured.”
Several witnesses at the party told cops they saw Billey stomping on Lord’s head while he was already on the ground, police said.
Another suspect in the fatal beating, Talyn Vigil, 17, later confessed on Snapchat to attacking Lord, authorities said.
“I hit a kid and this kid hit his head,” Vigil wrote to a friend, according to a police report. “And then they kicked his head in the ground and then I got word he died so idk.”
William Owen Hines, 18, who has been charged with murder in the house party attack, allegedly implicated himself in the melee.
“Straight up bro, I was drunk, heat of the moment,” Hines told police, according to the report. “I kicked him one time and I kicked his leg … More like one, two or three kicks and then started to back off.”
Weeks after the attack, Renner, who was charged in early March, played football for his high school, American Leadership Academy-Gilbert North, on Nov. 17. He was named as one of the players of the game, KPNX reported.
