TEXAS: Family Of El Paso Beating Victim Says Attack Was Hate Crime

On Saturday a man standing outside of popular El Paso gay nightclub Old Plantation was beaten with a baseball bay by a group of six men. The victim, who is not gay, remains in critical condition. Although police have so far refused to characterize the incident as a hate crime, the victim's family says the attackers used anti-gay slurs during the assault. El Paso's KTSM reports:

We spoke with the victim's sister, Deanne Martinez, this morning at UMC where her brother is still listed in critical condition. Martinez was there Saturday and witnessed the attack. "He was on the floor laying there knocked out and they still kept bashing his head with a bat. That to me is so cowardly. " Martinez says she and another family member tried to stop the attack but the men turned on them, she said "I was trying to pull out my brother and she was pushing off the guys. They ended up bashing her Jeep Liberty." So far police say they have no evidence to call the attack a hate crime. Martinez calls that ridiculous. She says her brother isn't gay but he was alone outside of a gay club and the men who attacked him made it clear why they picked him. Martinez said, "they were yelling gay slurs and yelling their gang name or where they're from."

The victim's sister added that she's heard of the same group of men harassing other nightclub patrons in the area. Police have not named any suspects.