Michelle Lee called the Houston police on Monday after her son, 13-year-old Zavion Parker, did not return home from school. A couple hours later he was found by a neighbor running down the street, about half a mile from his home.

“He had no shoes on,” said Carmecia Carmouche, who pulled over when she saw the frazzled teen. “He was drenched, sweating, crying.” He appeared to be in complete distress, telling Carmouche the specific details of his story—one that made his mother say that she will not be at peace until the perpetrators are caught. 

Parker told Houston police that he was abducted directly after getting off of the school bus. His assailants? A group of five white teen boys, encouraged by an additional adult white male. The boys forced Parker into a car and took him to a vacant house where they continued to assault him. They also stole his phone, jacket, keys, and shoes. 

“He says the reason why they got him was because they said he was black, he deserved to die,” Lee said of her son’s experience. He had told police that the adult suspect had a message tattooed on his forearm: “I hate black people.” 

Parker eventually escaped when the men went into another room to load a gun. 

Carmouche told reporters that the suspects had texted Parker’s mother from the phone they stole from him, and that she had seen them. “‘We gonna hang him. You gonna find him in the morning. You gonna see him.’ And all that stuff.”

HPD has yet to find the suspects, but are looking for five teenage boys with reddish hair, and a heavy built man with tattoos on his arm. The car involved in the incident is reportedly a red sedan with flames on the side.