Kooper Keller was at a party on the night of Aug. 29 when she saw her friend get thrown off a picnic table and attacked by a group of people. She had to do something.
“All I can see is just his poor little face just getting stomped on,” Kooper said. “And there [was], I couldn’t even tell you how many people. I want to say like eight or nine, just surrounding him and beating on him, for what I can see as absolutely no reason.”
Keller, a Nevada County resident, and her girlfriend were invited to a house party on the night of Aug. 29. They arrived at around 5 p.m. and helped the host of the party set up decorations.
According to Keller, about ten minutes after her friend had been brought to the party by his brother, he hopped up onto an outdoor picnic table Keller and her girlfriend brought. She said he thought he had heard other people at the party say his name.
After doing this, he was tackled to the ground, Keller said. In videos later posted to Facebook by Keller’s mother, Krystal Keller Myers, a group of at least five people proceeded to attack her friend. Three of these people were a father, mother and son that owned the house where the party was being held, according to Keller, adding the son was 14 years old.
“It fortunately raised a lot of awareness in our community,” Keller Myers said of her Facebook post with the videos. “It’s reached about 100,000 views, but I didn’t know what was going to be ignited. After releasing that the very next day, a couple of girlfriends reached out to me. They said we need to get up to the county and demand answers.”
These videos led to Keller Myers discovering that the incident with her daughter was not isolated. Other mothers and concerned citizens came forward with similar stories that all followed a similar pattern - multiple attackers assaulting victims at the same time.
Watching the attack, Keller felt like she needed to protect her friend.
“All I could think to do was to get in there and protect his head,” Keller said. “Eventually their son… had me in a chokehold. I passed out for a couple seconds.”
Keller was taken away in an ambulance that night, with a concussion and hair falling out. When the sheriff arrived, no arrests were made.
Navigating the legal process
Keller’s mother, Krystal Keller Myers, has been helping her daughter navigate the process of pressing charges. The next day, after Keller had been released from the hospital and had a chance to talk with her mom, she called the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office to press charges.
Keller called the sheriff’s office 18 times between August 30 and October 2 before the case was sent to the district attorney.
“In that time, my car exploded, my dog went missing for 30 hours, and I planned a f—-ing wedding,” Keller Myers said. “If I’m dealing with all those things, but also trying to make sure that evidence is being submitted into a case file, that’s not my job.”
Five days after the incident, at 1:30 a.m., Keller said she heard a knock on her door. Her phone started ringing, and when she answered it, it was a sheriff’s deputy asking her to answer the door.
After conducting a photo lineup, the officer left. Following that visit, on September 6, Keller sent the videos of the incident to the officer that had been dealing with their case.
Keller Myers said that she and her daughter didn’t hear back from the DA’s office until November 20. Keller received a letter notifying her that they had received a report with her listed as a victim. According to the letter, it was “pending review for possible filing of criminal charges against the above-named defendant.”
The only defendant named was the son of the family that attacked her daughter. Reading the letter, she followed up with the DA’s office. According to Keller Myers, she and her daughter could identify at least five of the people participating in the attack.
“That’s when I was told they actually dropped charges and it had been referred to juvenile probation,” Keller Myers said. “I absolutely lost my mind. I told them I’m posting every single video online today.”
Jesse Wilson, the Nevada County District Attorney wrote in an emailed statement that they are collaborating with law enforcement to determine “whether there is a demonstrable pattern of criminal behavior, whether additional individuals may be involved, and whether further charges are legally supported.”
“Our responsibility is to ensure that charging decisions are driven by evidence and the law, not unconfirmed concerns or speculation,” the Nevada County District Attorney wrote. “That review is ongoing, and where the evidence supports it, appropriate action will be taken.”
According to Keller Myers, the sheriff’s office had told her to keep quiet about the investigation.
“The very next day, I got a call from the DA’s office and I found out that the sheriff’s department never sent one video,” Keller Myers said. “None of the videos made it to the DA’s desk.”
Then, on December 3rd, Keller Myers said two of the people who attacked her daughter and her friend were arrested in response to an assault on West McKnight Way in Grass Valley. According to an article by ABC10, the police said the attack was “purported to be racially motivated.”
“What we can confirm is that felony charges have already been filed against certain individuals in connection with some of these incidents,” the District Attorney said in an emailed statement. “Further, active investigations are underway with respect to other incidents that may result in further charges.”
“I know that had the Nevada County Sheriff’s Department done their job back in August,” Keller Myers said, “these other attacks would not have happened.”
According to an emailed statement from the Sheriff’s department, “Public safety remains the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office’s highest priority, and deputies continue to take proactive steps to address concerns as they arise.”
Other mothers come together to share their story
After Keller Myers posted the videos from August 29 on Facebook, other people started to come to her with similar stories of young adults being attacked in the area.
In 2022, Malachi Coleman snuck out of his house in the middle of the night. He didn’t come back. His mother, Erin Silva, said she only found out what happened afterwards.
“My son was picked up by some kids that went to Nevada Union,” Silva said. “They took him out towards Camptonville… somehow my son was pushed out of the vehicle. A boy that went to Nevada Union pulled a knife out of his sleeve and stabbed my son.”
Originally, according to Silva, the boys in the car had all agreed to tell authorities a story that they were attacked by a homeless man, but their story kept changing.
“The [Yuba County District Attorney] didn’t want to prosecute because they said that the story had changed so many times,” Silva said. “That’s not a reason to not make sure that somebody is punished for a stabbing.”
Silva said that she wants her case opened back up.
“I really hope they get to the bottom of all of this and sort it out,” Silva said, “before anyone else dies.”
In the Nevada County countryside on Halloween night this year, another attack took place. Rachelle Winters said her son went to a bonfire with a friend. After he got there, he realized that no one else they knew was there.
According to Winters, multiple people started attacking him at once.
“Theres no going against ten kids kicking,” Winters said. “I don’t know if they’re trying to kill kids, but they have to realize that you kick a kid in the head wrong one time and they’re dead.”
Winters said they managed to escape and hide in some bushes nearby.
“They were left out there for two hours… There’s no phone signal out there,” Winters said. “One of them eventually got a message out to somebody who called the sheriff’s department.”
According to Winters, her son suffered a lacerated liver due to the severity of the attack, and she felt lucky he was alive.
“They kicked my son so bad that he had pelvic injuries, injuries to his liver, a lot of internal injuries and a head injury,” Winters said. “The other boy, his teeth went through his lip.”
She said that she felt the need to come forward with her story after talking with Keller Myers and the situation with her daughter. She felt the need to raise her concerns with the community.
“I’m going to stand behind [Keller Myers] and [Keller],” Winters said. “I’m going to stand together for our kids.”
On December 8, Keller Myers led a group of concerned citizens in a protest outside of the Nevada County Sheriff’s office, demanding accountability and transparency from local officials.
In an interview with KCRA, Keller Myers said that it would “allow a safe space for other kids to come forward, other people to come forward and make their reports with the sheriff.”
In an emailed statement, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said that “the community members have expressed understandable worry, and those concerns are taken seriously.”
The Sheriff’s Office said they could not give any specific details about Keller’s case.
Keller Myers said that in addition to acknowledging concerns, they need to figure out how to move forward as a community.
“The common denominator here with all of our community members is that silence equals safety,” Keller Myers said. “I wasn’t going to be silent, and I’m hoping that encourages other people that have gone through what my daughter went through… to feel empowered to come forward.”
