Detectives say they are trying to determine if a brutal attack on two men in a South Coast park by as many as ten teens was a hate crime.
The two men were in Isla Vista’s Estero Park Saturday night when they were attacked. A passerby on a bicycle saw what was happening, and started yelling at the attackers, who fled.
The men were beaten so badly they had to go to a hospital. One suffered a broken jaw, and the other had welts on his back and an injured shoulder. Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s detectives say the attack may have been gang related. They say the attackers also made sexually derogatory comments, opening the door to the possibility it was a hate crime.
