CENTER CITY -
"Five guys approached me from the back and was hitting me." Those words from 14-year-old Martineau Denis as he described how he was attacked on his way home from school Thursday afternoon.
He says a pack of teenage students jumped him as he tried to catch the subway in Center City.
"All I did was guard up and bend down," Denis said. "Get away from the punches, yeah."
The high school freshman had just left the Philadelphia Electrical and Technology Charter School on Chestnut Street and entered the Walnut Street SEPTA station. He was headed to the subway for a ride to his home in Fernrock when he was jumped from behind by the teenagers, punched and thrown against the wall.
The teens ran off and left him dazed on the platform.
"I want justice for my son. Five boys come and jump him. I want justice for him," said Henry Denis, the teenager's father.
"I can imagine what he was going through while they were beating him up."
Denis spent several hours at Children's Hospital undergoing a CAT scan for his injuries, a broken nose and two black and blue eyes.
"My son has asthma, he could have died," Henry Denis added.
There are surveillance cameras at the station, but so far no video of the attack has been located. Still SEPTA and Philadelphia Police are investigating.
For now, Denis' parents won't let him return to the school. He believes his attackers could be students at the school.
"Gray shirts and black pants, like they go to my school," the 14-year-old said.
"I feel like I want to take matters into my own hands," his father said, "but I'd rather go to the law."
There have been no arrests thus far.
The young man's parents are trying to get him transferred to another school.
For now, Martineau will stay at home. He says he does not want to go back to his old school out of fear that he will be attacked again.
Fourteen-year-old Martineau Denis talks to FOX 29's Dave Schratwieser after he was attacked by a pack of teenagers.
