West Seattle beating probed as possible hate crime
By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter
Seattle police are investigating whether a 15-year-old boy who was severely beaten in West Seattle last week was the victim of a hate crime.
The boy's father, Tim McClelland, told KING-TV his son was attacked because he is white.
A detective assigned to investigate possible hate crimes is looking into the attack, which happened around 2 a.m. Tuesday, according to police spokesman Mark Jamieson.
Once the suspects are arrested, it will be up to King County prosecutors to decide whether they could face charges of malicious harassment, the state's hate-crime statute.
Police say the teenager, identified by his father as Shane McClellan, was walking home around 2 a.m. Tuesday when he got into a fight with two other youths. It's unclear who started the fight, but McClellan was beaten unconscious, Jamieson said Sunday.
Tim McClellan told KING-TV the two youths first asked his son for a lighter then struck him repeatedly. He said his son was threatened with a gun and beaten with a belt and his neck was burned with cigarettes.
Police said the two youths called Shane McClellan by racial slurs. He told police that one of the attackers was black and the other was Asian or Pacific Islander, Jamieson said.
"When they were beating him with the belt [they said] that they hated white people, and that's what the whipping was for," McClellan told KING-TV.
McClellan's family told police the teen was beaten and tortured for nearly four hours, Jamieson said.
The teen told police he awoke on the street alone after the assault around 6 a.m. and flagged down a passer-by, who called 911. Police talked to the teen around 7 a.m.
Shane McClellan is recovering from the attack at home, KING-TV reports.
The state's malicious-harassment law makes it a felony to threaten, damage the property of, or physically injure someone because of ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, disability or sexual orientation.
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By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter
Seattle police are investigating whether a 15-year-old boy who was severely beaten in West Seattle last week was the victim of a hate crime.
The boy's father, Tim McClelland, told KING-TV his son was attacked because he is white.
A detective assigned to investigate possible hate crimes is looking into the attack, which happened around 2 a.m. Tuesday, according to police spokesman Mark Jamieson.
Once the suspects are arrested, it will be up to King County prosecutors to decide whether they could face charges of malicious harassment, the state's hate-crime statute.
Police say the teenager, identified by his father as Shane McClellan, was walking home around 2 a.m. Tuesday when he got into a fight with two other youths. It's unclear who started the fight, but McClellan was beaten unconscious, Jamieson said Sunday.
Tim McClellan told KING-TV the two youths first asked his son for a lighter then struck him repeatedly. He said his son was threatened with a gun and beaten with a belt and his neck was burned with cigarettes.
Police said the two youths called Shane McClellan by racial slurs. He told police that one of the attackers was black and the other was Asian or Pacific Islander, Jamieson said.
"When they were beating him with the belt [they said] that they hated white people, and that's what the whipping was for," McClellan told KING-TV.
McClellan's family told police the teen was beaten and tortured for nearly four hours, Jamieson said.
The teen told police he awoke on the street alone after the assault around 6 a.m. and flagged down a passer-by, who called 911. Police talked to the teen around 7 a.m.
Shane McClellan is recovering from the attack at home, KING-TV reports.
The state's malicious-harassment law makes it a felony to threaten, damage the property of, or physically injure someone because of ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, disability or sexual orientation.
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