3 Skinheads Arrested in a Racial Beating

Three San Diego skinheads have been arrested on suspicion of beating unconscious a young Pacific Island man whom they allegedly mistook for being black in a racial incident over the weekend in Mission Beach, police said Monday.

The victim, 18-year-old Eric Joel Vaerga of San Diego, was kicked in the head, face and body by three white youths wearing steel-toed boots, police said. He suffered a concussion, a bruised eye, a possible jaw fracture, a dislocated right ankle and facial cuts and bruises, they said.

According to police, Vaerga also was subjected to racial insults as a group of skinheads yelled, “This is what white supremacy is all about!”

Arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon were Steven Mike Kuntz, 20, of the 1700 block of Bancroft Street; Michael Joseph Mann, 19, of the 3900 block of Wabash Avenue, and Michael Allen DiPaolo, 21, of the 4600 block of Kansas Street.

The men were wearing black jackets and boots, police said, adding that Kuntz has a spider tattoo on his left ankle, Mann has a swastika tattooed on his chest and an “SS” on his right upper arm, and DiPaolo has a swastika on his right calf.

Police said the attack occurred about 2 a.m. Saturday outside a taco shop in the 700 block of Ventura Place.

Vaerga and a group of his friends told police that they spotted a fight between a white man and a black man when suddenly Vaerga was knocked to the ground and pummeled by kicks and blows from the fists of several white men.

Witnesses said the attackers also picked Vaerga off the ground and rammed his head into a parked car.

At one point, police said, a Latino man attempted to break up the fight, but the assailants warned him to stay out of it.

According to police, the attackers were yelling, “White power! White power!” and giving Nazi salutes moments before police arrived and placed them under arrest.