Roadside Beating Labeled Hate Crime

A traffic dispute Friday morning in Lemon Grove led to an assault that is being investigated as a hate crime, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

A car driving near the intersection of Sweetwater Road and Broadway was cut off by a white Ford Ranger just after 11 a.m., said Sgt. Greg Hampton. Both vehicles eventually stopped after the man, a Latino, honked his horn at the Ranger, and several white males attacked him with a pipe and fists, Hampton said.

As the suspects left in the Ranger, they yelled “white power” and called the Latino a racial slur and said, “That’s the way we do it in Spring Valley,” according to Hampton.

The victim suffered a laceration to the back of his head and a large bump over his left eye, Hampton said.