“He tried to fight back. Every time he did that others would jump in and one of them took out a metal-ringed belt,” said Lieutenant Colleen Turay.

They beat an 18 year-old man who happens to be Jewish. He ended up bruises, scratched, and scarred. Davis police didn’t have much to go on. They pulled surveillance video from nearby shops, finding a partial license plate in one picture. “So we were already working that angle, but at the same time he ends up coming up with the name on his own,” said Turay.

The victim started working his own investigation. A friend told him about a guy in Vacaville who might be responsible, so the 18-year-old went to a laptop lineup on myspace.com, finding the guy who beat him.

Davis detectives caught up with 18-year-old Sean Kennedy near his home in Vacaville, and the victim didn’t stop with one face and one name.

“He started looking at the people this guy was communicating with and said, ‘yeah, that’s one, and that’s another,” said Turay.

The victim’s myspace sleuthing skills led cops to a 17-year-old suspect who’s also under arrest. And myspace is helping police pick up perpetrators in other cases. Criminals caught digitally red-handed, bragging about what crimes they’ve committed.