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Hate fueled weekend beating says elderly man

Updated: Tuesday, 03 Apr 2012, 10:32 PM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 03 Apr 2012, 8:02 PM EDT

• by Jennifer Steck, FOX Toledo News reporter

TOLEDO, Ohio (WUPW) - Saturday afternoon around 4:45 p.m., 78-year-old Dallas Watts was walking home from the gas station at the corner of Starr and White in East Toledo.

He was confronted by six juveniles between the ages of 11 to 17, both white and black, and for the next three or four minutes was nearly beaten to death because of, as he says, the color of his skin.
"This white man said, 'Take him down!' and the next thing I knew, I was sucker punched from the back," Watts said.
For the next four minutes, the group of juveniles punched and kicked Watts, until he nearly passed out. Two customers at the nearby gas station stepped in to help.

"All I could hear before I passed out, 'Don't kill him, or we all go to jail,'" Watts recalled. "If (the customers) had not gotten involved, he would have killed me."

Watts is calling the weekend attack that occurred a block away from his Mason Street home a hate crime. During the attack, Watts says he brought up Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen killed by a block watch member Feb. 26.

"Why me? Remember Trayvon! Remember Trayvon!," Watts recalled. "I meant it as a peaceful way. What happened to Trayvon, I was not responsible for, I live 1,000 miles away! But they kept saying, 'Kill him! Kill Him! Kill him!' because I'm a white man."

On him at the time was a credit card, wallet, house keys and two bags of pork rinds for his dogs. The only thing stolen from him were the bags of pork rinds, leading Watts to believe the attack was racially charged.

"I have heard that there were some comments made, some racial comments made, but that we're still investigating," said Toledo police Sgt. Phil Toney. "We can't really confirm that one way or the other at this point. We still have not talked with Mr. Watts yet. We're going to be talking to him a little bit later."

Watts, who remains sore from the attack but will be fine physically, he has since contacted a lawyer to file charges with U.S. Attorney General for a hate crime.
"You don't pick somebody's body up off the sidewalk and let somebody else give him a lick to kick the ribs," he said. "That was malicious intent. That was a hate crime and I want them punished for it!"

Three of the six youths alleged to have been involved in the attack have been charged, Sgt. Toney said. Two of the unidentified youths were charged with one count each of robbery while another youth was charged with disorderly conduct.