5.56NATO
04-10-2014, 11:04 AM
Detroit police say mob attack on motorist may be hate crime
DETROIT - Two more suspects were arrested in a mob attack on a motorist who had struck a child and Detroit's police chief said Monday investigators were working to determine whether the brutal beating was a hate crime.
So far four suspects have been taken into custody in the beating of Steven Utash, 54, of Clinton Township, who remains in critical condition and in a medically inducted coma.
Police say Utash was driving his pickup truck on the east side of Detroit on April 2 when he struck a 10-year-old boy who had darted out into the street. When Utash got out of his vehicle to help the child, he was set upon by as many as a dozen men.
Detroit Police Chief James Craig said investigators were examining whether the attack should be treated as a hate crime. Utash is white and all the attackers were believed to be black.
"We're widening the scope of our investigation," Craig told The Detroit News. "Both our strategy and the prosecutor's strategy is widening, and those factors are being looked into very closely. I can't reveal some things about our investigation, but that (a hate crime classification) is definitely something we're considering."
In Michigan, ethnic intimidation is a felony that carries a possible two-year prison sentence. There are also federal hate crime laws.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/detroit-police-say-mob-attack-on-motorist-may-be-hate-crime/
DETROIT - Two more suspects were arrested in a mob attack on a motorist who had struck a child and Detroit's police chief said Monday investigators were working to determine whether the brutal beating was a hate crime.
So far four suspects have been taken into custody in the beating of Steven Utash, 54, of Clinton Township, who remains in critical condition and in a medically inducted coma.
Police say Utash was driving his pickup truck on the east side of Detroit on April 2 when he struck a 10-year-old boy who had darted out into the street. When Utash got out of his vehicle to help the child, he was set upon by as many as a dozen men.
Detroit Police Chief James Craig said investigators were examining whether the attack should be treated as a hate crime. Utash is white and all the attackers were believed to be black.
"We're widening the scope of our investigation," Craig told The Detroit News. "Both our strategy and the prosecutor's strategy is widening, and those factors are being looked into very closely. I can't reveal some things about our investigation, but that (a hate crime classification) is definitely something we're considering."
In Michigan, ethnic intimidation is a felony that carries a possible two-year prison sentence. There are also federal hate crime laws.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/detroit-police-say-mob-attack-on-motorist-may-be-hate-crime/