4 fateful hours: The night Preston Lord crossed paths with the 'Gilbert Goons'
Lethal punches and Snapchat confessions: Republic pieces together what led to the fatal beating and its chilling aftermath. Sources include a 1,100-page police report, interviews and social posts.
They call it the hammer punch. A devastatingly effective blow taught in martial arts classes. It is delivered downward with the bottom of the fist. Body weight provides momentum, driving the shoulder forward — like pounding in a nail.
Talan Renner raised his invisible hammer and brought it down again and again into Preston Lord's face. Witnesses told police Renner hit the 16-year-old boy four times before standing up and kicking him once. Then the rest of the "Gilbert Goons" moved in to continue the fatal beating.
Witnesses at the Oct. 28 Halloween party in Queen Creek agreed Renner, 17, delivered the first blows after Lord was knocked to the ground. But they are less clear about the sequence of events as a group of teens took turns stomping, kicking and punching Lord as he lay on the side of a street.