4 Marines Arrested Hate Crime - California police are investigating an alleged attack on a local gay man by four U.S. Marines as a possible hate crime.
CBS Los Angeles reports that the victim, described only as a film student from San Dimas, was beaten unconscious outside of Long Beach's Silver Fox Bar. "I remember blacking out,” the victim, who did not want to disclose his name or show his face on camera, recalled. After at least one of the men started yelling homophobic epithets at him, the victim says he was beaten by the four men, who are believed to be stationed at Camp Pendleton: "All I remember is being put next to the curb."
The four men were arrested for assault, but the attack reportedly remains under investigation as a hate crime. Local police have witheld the suspects' names, but have also reportedly notified U.S. Marine Corps authorities of the incident. The Marines are reportedly also conducting an independent investigation into the assault, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
The bar's manager John Barnes confirmed to the Press-Telegram that the four men came into the bar shortly before closing on Sunday or early Monday and behaved strangely, even addressing Barnes as "sweetheart" at one point.
"You could tell by the tone of his voice that he was uncomfortable," Barnes told the publication. "He was making a demeaning remark."
A spokesperson for Long Beach Police is quoted by a number of media outlets including Pink News as saying, "Based on the preliminary investigation, it was determined that an assault had occurred to a male adult by several male suspects after they had left the establishment."
Source:Huffingtonpost
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