Was the Slaying of Black Man a Hate Crime? : Civil rights: Activists are demanding information about the fatal shooting allegedly by a white youth with a shaved head.

Civil rights activists were seeking to learn Saturday whether the slaying of a middle-aged black man, allegedly gunned down by a white youth with a shaved head, was a hate crime.

Investigators say the suspect has denied being in a white-supremacist gang.

On Friday morning, police arrested Jonathan Russell Kennedy, 19, of Huntington Beach in connection with the shooting outside a McDonald’s restaurant on Beach Boulevard. They also arrested a 17-year-old male, who has not been identified because he is a juvenile.

Kennedy, who sports tattoos and a shaved head, is suspected of being the gunman, said Huntington Beach Police Officer Mike Corcoran.

Corcoran said that police have no evidence that the shooting was racially motivated but he said it would be “irresponsible” not to investigate that possibility.

“Obviously that is the first thing that everyone is looking at and jumping to the conclusion because there are two white kids and one black man,” Corcoran said. “But there is no evidence at this point.”

But Eugene Wheeler, president of the 100 Black Men of Orange County, said he was “outraged” when he learned about the fatal shooting Thursday of 44-year-old Vernon Windell Flournoy outside a fast food restaurant.

“This is indicative of what is occurring in Orange County,” Wheeler said. “We will be looking into this and will be meeting to decide what role we might play in seeing to it that justice is done.”

Rusty Kennedy, Orange County Human Relations Commission director, said Saturday the circumstances of the killing and the possibility that at least one of the two suspects may have been involved in a white gang are enough to investigate whether race was a factor in the shooting.

“This is pretty hideous,” he said. “It’s a pretty sad situation.”

Police say Kennedy has the look of a skinhead with a shaved head and tattoos but said the teen-ager has denied belonging to a white supremacist gang.

Kennedy had been staying in the same sprawling apartment complex where Flournoy lived. Neighbors at the complex, called Seabridge Village, said they had been fearful of Kennedy and his friends, who they said exhibited rowdy behavior and appeared menacing.

“This whole thing is like a nightmare,” said one woman, who asked to remain unidentified. “They all look like skinheads and we are really, really afraid.”

Police and neighbors said Kennedy had been living at an apartment inside the gated complex. A young man who answered the door at the home on Saturday denied that the suspect had been living here.

Flournoy encountered the two teen-agers outside of the apartment complex as he walked south on Beach Boulevard. A witness said the three began arguing and traded blows before the older man was shot.

Flournoy stumbled into a McDonald’s restaurant where he collapsed in front of horrified workers and patrons.

Corcoran said police recovered a small-caliber handgun close to the area in the apartment complex where Kennedy was arrested.

On Saturday, a 44-year-old Huntington Beach man who witnessed the shooting returned to the scene to place a bouquet of flowers on the spot where Flournoy was shot.

“I was crying this morning over this thing,” said the man, an optometrist who asked that his name not be published. “The whole thing was absolutely unprovoked. (Flournoy) just seemed like a nice guy.

Directly across the street from where Flournoy was shot is the 7-Eleven store where he bought his morning cup of coffee each day.

“I was sick when I heard about this,” said store owner John Andikian. “(Flournoy) was a nice man who didn’t say much. This is really frightening. I wish they would change the laws. Everybody is walking around with guns.”

Kennedy was being held at Huntington Beach Jail on $250,000 bail and is expected to be arraigned Monday. The 17-year-old suspect was being held at Orange County Juvenile Hall.

Earlier this month, Wheeler’s group and a coalition of other minority leaders lashed out at local law enforcement authorities over what they said was a “failure to fully investigate and prosecute” hate crimes, including the recent beating of Ruben Charles Vaughan III, a 15-year-old black athlete and honors student at Santa Margarita High School.