Fort Collins – Police are investigating the reported beating of a black man by a group of whites near the Colorado State University campus early Saturday morning as a hate crime.
The victim told police he was walking alone when a man stopped him in the street and started a conversation, and then three college-age white men jumped out of a van and attacked, hitting and kicking him. One of the attackers yelled a racial epithet while the man who stopped the victim joined in the beating, police said.
“It appears to be a totally random attack based solely on his race,” Fort Collins police Sgt. Dave Haywood said. One of the attackers yelled: “‘Kick the ——.”‘
The black man, whose identity has not been released, told police he had been walking home at 2:48 a.m. after leaving a bar when he was assaulted. Paramedics treated him for a facial abrasion, but the victim declined further treatment, Haywood said.
The suspects, if identified, face misdemeanor assault and felony hate-crime charges that could bring two to six years in prison, he said.
“We don’t have much to go on,” Haywood said. “I think it’s going to be a high priority. … It’s just not something we’re going to stand for in Fort Collins.”
The victim told police he was walking home alone on Laurel Street near Whitcomb Street, which is just north of CSU, when he was approached by a white man about 22 to 26 years old who started talking to him, Haywood said. While the two were talking, a full-sized, older-model brown van pulled up and three white men got out, according to a police news release.
Without hesitation, the three began hitting the black man with their fists. The man he had been speaking with also turned on him and started hitting him, the victim reported. When he fell to the ground, the attackers started kicking him.
The victim estimated that the beating lasted for five minutes, Haywood said.
“When you’re being assaulted, five seconds can seem like five minutes,” Haywood said.
All four attackers jumped into the van and drove off when they saw other people walking toward them, he said.
The victim said he had never seen his attackers before and could only give a description of the man he had been speaking with briefly before the attack.
The victim, who had a cut on his cheek, walked several blocks to a friend’s house and called police, Haywood said.
“This is the first time I have seen a random attack out of nowhere like this,” Haywood said.
In Fort Collins on Saturday afternoon, news of the attack on Laurel Street buzzed through the nearby Cafe Blue Bird.
“It’s pretty scary. I hope it wasn’t a hate crime, that would make it all that much worse,” said Niki Smith, 17, who works as a hostess and buses tables.
Byron Thomas, 20, who is biracial, said he’s lived in Fort Collins for five years and hadn’t heard of any incidents where people of color were harassed.
“That’s not cool,” he said.
Several residents who live near the site of the attack said they heard nothing unusual early Saturday morning.
Melissa Clary, a neighborhood resident who was walking in the area Saturday afternoon, said Fort Collins “is open to all types of people.”
“I’m surprised it happened,” said the 13-year resident.
Haywood said anyone who has more information about the attack or has been the victim of a similar assault should call police.
This was at least the second report of a racially motivated random attack near a Colorado college campus within the past year.
Phillip Martinez, 38, is charged with second-degree assault and ethnic intimidation in an alleged attack June 3 on a black University of Colorado-Boulder student, who was knocked unconscious and suffered a broken jaw.
Andrew Sterling was attacked while walking home with a friend from a Boulder bar. A man in a passing van yelled racial slurs and profanities out the window, Sterling said.
In a recent court hearing, Sterling said surgical wires holding his jaw together were removed but that a titanium plate held in place by four screws will remain for the rest of his life.
The number of hate crimes reported in Colorado dropped from 100 in 2003 to 63 in 2004, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. The 2005 numbers were not available.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
