SEATTLE – Seattle Police are investigating to determine if an attack on a 16-year-old West Seattle boy was racially motivated.
Shane McClellan's father says his son was walking home from a friend's house Tuesday around 2 a.m. when he was approached by two men - one black and one Asian.
Asking him first for a light, they then attacked him, kicking and hitting him and threatening him with a gun, said McClellan.
"They started punching, knocked him down, kicking him, robbed him of everything, stole his coat, shoved him to the ground, stuck a gun in the back of his head," described McClellan. "I can't tell you what it's like to see and not even be able to recognize your son."
McClellan says they also burned the back of Shane's neck with cigarette butts before taking out a belt and making the racially-charged comments.
"When they were beating with the belt [they said] that they hated white people, and that's what the whipping was for," said McClellan.
Shane said they told him they singled him out because that was what his ancestors did to theirs.
The teen was unconscious until about 7 a.m., said McClellan, and he then stumbled into the street and was helped to a hospital by a passerby.
Seattle Police have referred the case to their Bias Crimes Unit for review as a possible hate crime.
