Man Hurt Critically in Possible Hate Attack : Crime: Police think the assault on a Stanton 18-year-old might have been motivated by his Egyptian descent. The victim might have been aiding a woman being harassed.

An 18-year-old Stanton man of Egyptian descent was in critical condition Saturday with a fractured skull after a beating that police believe may have been a hate crime.

“He was apparently assaulted by a skinhead,” Lt. Luis Ochoa of the Huntington Beach Police Department said, adding that other details of the crime were not immediately available. “The three friends with him at the time left him at the hospital and we’re trying to find them to find out more about what happened. Everything is very sketchy at this point.”

There was some confusion over where the assault on Alexander Salib occurred and its motivation. Police originally believed it happened on Main Street in Huntington Beach, but investigators now are not sure. Police were exploring the possibility that it was a hate crime but declined to release further information. Salib’s father, Victor, said Saturday that his son’s friends told him that the teen-ager was beaten when he tried to stop a stranger who was physically abusing a woman.

“That sounds like my son, somebody was beating up a girl and he tried to stop them,” said Victor Salib, as he held vigil at his son’s bedside in the intensive care unit at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. “He’s a very good boy, a real sweetheart.”

“We want to know who did this,” Victor Salib said. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed. My head was spinning when I heard what happened.”

Alexander Salib was walking with several friends shortly after midnight Saturday when he was attacked with a portable steering lock.

Salib’s friends took him to a Garden Grove hospital but authorities later transported him to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he remained in critical condition Saturday.

Victor Salib said he was offended that someone might attack his son because of race. He said his son, formerly a student at Magnolia High School, is an apprentice to sheet-metal workers and was born in the United States.

“My son is 100% American,” Salib said, recalling that his son last week turned over his paycheck to his father so the elder Salib could contribute to feeding the needy on Thanksgiving. “He’s a very good boy. He was trying to help and someone hit him over the head.”

Anyone with information on the assault is asked to call Huntington Beach police at (714) 960-8809.