A new timeline exposes the horror of the fatal beating of 16-year-old Preston Lord by a gang of teenagers in Arizona.
Lord was attacked last October during a Halloween party and found on a nearby sidewalk in the Phoenix suburb of Queen Creek.
Talan Renner, 17, is accused of being the bully who delivered the devastating ‘hammer blows’ that ended the young athlete’s life.
Witnesses told police that Renner punched Lord at least four times as the victim was knocked to the ground, before kicking him at least once.
Renner then stepped away and let the other alleged teenage delinquents, who call themselves the “Gilbert Goons,” take turns attacking Lord.
The other six murder suspects then stomped, punched and bashed Lord as he lay on the ground, according to a police report and as reported by The Arizona Republic.
Preston Lord, 16, was left to die on a Queen Creek road outside Phoenix after being attacked at the party on October 28 and suffering critical injuries
Talan Renner, 17, is accused of being the bully who delivered the devastating ‘hammer blows’ that ended Lord’s life
A memorial to Preston Lord can be seen on the sidewalk where he was found unconscious
Repeat offenders William ‘Owen’ Hines, 18, and Dominic Turner, 20, were seen kicking Lord. Jacob Meisner, 17, charged in other Goon attacks, was also seen punching Lord multiple times.
Treston Biley, 18, another Goon previously accused of several attacks, was reportedly the last to attack and jumped on Lord’s head while shouting: ‘F*** you, pu***!’
Then, 19-year-old Taylor Sherman is accused of opening Snapchat on his phone to film rescuers dragging Lord’s body off the street.
He reportedly said, “She collapsed. Haha.’
Talyn Vigil then ran to his car and told his girlfriend, “I just knocked a kid out…we gotta go, we gotta leave.”
Lord died in hospital two days later from his brain injuries, but police made no arrests for months until March, sparking frustration in a community rocked by teen violence in recent years.
All seven suspects have pleaded not guilty to Lord’s murder, and all except Vigil, who posted bail last week, remain in jail awaiting trial.
Lord’s murder suspects, Billey and Meisner, are seen above. Both were previously accused of assaults linked to the so-called Gilber Goons
Suspect Talyn Vigil ran to his car and told his girlfriend, “I just knocked a kid out… we gotta go, we gotta get away.”
By 9:40 p.m., the Goons had caught up with Lord and his friends, and Dominic Turner grabbed a $10 gold chain from the boy who had recorded the previous altercation.
Sherman told police as they left the scene that Renner said, “I may have hospitalized that kid… I hit him pretty hard.”
Lord’s friends told police that although they did not know any of the attackers, Billey targeted one of Lord’s friends after he began recording another altercation involving the murder suspects.
The boy told Biley that he had deleted the video, but the Goons continued to target Lord and his friends, who tried to withdraw from the party but were followed by the teenage delinquents.
As they chased them, the Goons reportedly sang a disturbing tune that read, “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye.”
By 9:40 p.m., the Goons had caught up with Lord and his friends, and according to police reports, Turner took a $10 gold chain from the boy who had recorded the previous altercation.
The Goons then started playing hot potato with the gold chain as they taunted the boys and urged him to ‘do something’ about the stolen chain, it is claimed.
Taylor Sherman, 19, opened Snapchat on his phone to record rescuers dragging Lord’s body off the street
Repeat offender William ‘Owen’ Hines, 18, was also seen attacking Lord
Despite the taunts, the boy tried to walk away, but he soon felt a blow to the right side of his head. The punch was thrown by Meisner, witnesses told police, and caused the chaos that followed.
Lord and his friends started to run away but the Goons gave chase again, pushing a 14-year-old to the ground before allegedly hitting him on the head and leaving him with a broken wrist.
The Goons then caught up to Lord and slammed him into the ground before taking turns attacking him. It is unclear who threw the first punch, with some witnesses pointing to Renner and others pointing to Vigil.
The boys have a similar name and Renner’s father Travis Renner has been accused of using the similarity in names to pin the murder on Vigil, the only suspect released on bail.
The beating lasted several seconds and the Goons reportedly went to their car after ‘twerking’ and ‘air humping’ Lord’s body.
According to a former associate of Travis Renner, an attempted cover-up began almost immediately after Lord’s murder.
Ashley Reynolds, who used to work at Relentless Media Agency, has made this claim that her former bosses Travis Renner and Adam Kifer openly discussed their plans to hide evidence and pin the blame on Talyn Vigil.
Travis Renner and his business partner reportedly made plans to take Talan to a cabin until the injuries he suffered during the beatings healed. Detectives determined that Renner’s family had “financial resources to assist in the flight to Mexico” and he was taken from the Phoenix area after the attack on Preston.
The businessmen said Preston’s beating was part of some kind of initiation because Talan wanted to participate in the beating like that of the Gilbert Goons, Reynolds said.
Court documents show that none of the suspects knew Preston before attacking him with a gold chain.
Arizona businessman Travis Renner is accused of helping his teenage son cover up the murder of a 16-year-old boy who was beaten to death after a house party.
Reynolds claimed that she was instructed to backdate electronic calendar entries to make it appear that Talan was out of town on the day of the Halloween party. She added that her former bosses even devised a way for Renner to divest himself from the company to minimize the chance of lawsuits.
Renner’s business partner Kifer then allegedly asked Reynolds to sign a non-disclosure agreement. He told the Arizona Republic that he has “no connection to the allegations involving the Renner family.”
Reynolds spoke to the local outlet before anyone was charged with Preston’s murder.
Queen Creek Police Chief Randy Brice confirmed that detectives spoke with Reynolds, who provided information consistent with their findings.
‘The statements made regarding our case confirmed what we already knew. … It was an affirmation rather than a contradiction,” the police chief said. “It’s information we already knew through another series of interviews.”
Renner’s home was raided by police in November, but Talan was only arrested later.
Renner’s other son Kyler has been charged in connection with two separate gang attacks at a parking garage and a house party in 2022.
Travis Renner was also arrested in January on suspicion of drug possession and paraphernalia charges, while his son Kyler was taken into custody on gang violence charges.
The father has not been charged in the alleged cover-up.