The NAACP wants the attack on a 22-year-old black man in Des Moines, Iowa, investigated as a hate crime.
DarQuan Jones told police he was approached by three white men early Saturday as he arrived at his girlfriend’s house, according to The Des Moines Register. The men began assaulting him. At one point he was able to break free, but the men caught up to him and the assault continued.
“During this, Jones reports that one of the attackers hurls racial epithets and threatens to kill him," Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek told CNN.
Witnesses heard the incident and began yelling -- scaring the attackers off, he said.
"It is unclear what prompted (the men) to approach Jones,” Parizek added. “However, evidence indicates that this was not a random selection of Jones as a victim."
Jones, in an interview with the Register, said he was choked and punched multiple times by the men.
"I couldn't breathe, I just kept blacking out," he said. "I could see my whole life just going in and out, in and out."
He said they started dragging him to a creek and later held his head under the water.
The Des Moines NAACP called the attack “nothing less than a hate crime.”
"After speaking with Quan, his family, and the witnesses that have come forward -- if the story is as they state it is -- then what occurred yesterday should be seen as nothing less than a hate crime," local chapter president Kameron Middlebrooks told CNN.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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