YPSILANTI, Mich. – An Ypsilanti man said he was beaten after he asked two teens to stop setting off fireworks outside his elderly father's apartment.
Chuck Rice, 56, said the teens hit him in the face with a brick, broke his collar bone and kicked him to the ground, leaving him bruised.
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"They said, 'Stay down old man, or we are going to kill you,'" Rice said.
He said he identified the attackers as two 19-year-old men who live across the street from his father's Cross Street Village Apartments near Eastern Michigan University.
Police arrested the teens and they were let go the next morning without being charged.
The teens, who asked to be called Charles and Tom, said their fight with Rice was all in self-defense. They said they could not get Rice off of them.
"I was defending myself," Charles said. "I boxed for my whole life. He punched me and, you know, that's how it goes."
The two men are college students. One is studying at a nearby community college and the other at Eastern Michigan.
"He didn't know what he was getting himself into. He thought it would be an easy go," Charles said.
Tom said spending the night in jail was an inconvenience.
"Had to spend the night in jail last night," he said. "I did not get the best of sleep and I missed work."
Rice's family members said police took too long to respond to calls about the fight. They cannot believe police do not have enough evidence to charge the teens.
"If it had been a senior, he had been laying there dead," Rice said.
Police said one of the teens could still face charges even if it was self-defense. If the teens got away from Rice but then continued to beat him, then charges could be brought against them, police said.
Rice said he is looking for a lawyer because he is facing expensive medical bills due to the fight.