Victim Of Alleged Hate Crime: 'I Can't Understand It'
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AVALON (KDKA) -- He says he was attacked and beaten at an Avalon bar because of the color of his skin.
Paul Morris, of Bellevue, came to the Jackman Inn two weekends ago to see a friend. Instead, he says he encountered a group later identified as skinheads, who glared at him and told him to leave.
"Telling me to get out of here. 'Why don't you get out of here? Why don't you just go?' So I responded, 'I don't even know you people, why are you telling me to leave?' And then they started with the obscenities," Morris said. "It was all types of the N-word and things like that."
He was standing out back with a friend and says he heard one person saying something about "eradicating blacks one at a time." Dedicating it was time to leave, he tried to exit through a door, but found it blocked by a group of skinheads.
"They were blocking the door and at that point, I was attacked," he said. "I was punched. At some points I was kicked. At some points they grabbed the corner of my mouth. I was punched in the throat."
Patrons who witnessed the assault in the poolroom says the group wore t-shirts and had tattoos with the insignia of Keystone United, a hate group which until recently went by the name of the Keystone State Skinheads. Six people have been charged with simple assault and ethnic intimidation.
"I can't imagine anyone having that kind of hate for someone they don't even know. I can't understand it," Morris said.
"Paul unmistakably heard the N-word as the fuel behind the attack. He heard the statement, 'We're going to eradicate one N-word at a time.' There's no doubt that this attack was based on hatred towards a race," Morris's attorney, Fred Rabner, said.
Morris says he'd like to eradicate hate.
"I don't care if you're black, brown, blue, if you're from the LGBT community. We all should be able to get along. You know, just because we have differences and we don't feel a specific way, that's no reason to bring any ill harm or talk to somebody," Morris said.
