Beating of Black Student a Hate Crime, Police Say

Police investigators have concluded that the near-fatal beating of a black student outside a Fresno State University fraternity party was a hate crime.

Detectives also have found three suspects but will try to get further evidence before seeking warrants for their arrests, Police Chief Ed Winchester said.

The names of the suspects were not released, Winchester said, but two of them are in custody for unrelated crimes.

Winchester asked that witnesses to the Aug. 23 beating of Malcolm Boyd and a companion contact police to help provide some of that needed evidence.

“I urge these witnesses to come forward,” Winchester said during a news conference Friday in front of City Hall. A number of civil rights groups were represented at the event, held to show opposition to hate crimes.

Winchester warned that the number of hate crimes is up in Fresno. There were 34 in 1996, an average of 2.8 a month. Winchester said 28 hate crimes have been reported in the first eight months this year, an average of 3.5 a month.

Robert Segura, chairman of Fresno’s Human Rights Commission, said hate crimes are “devastating in the evolution of a multicultural society.” Segura added that “no other criminal behavior is as difficult to prove.”

Boyd, 24, was beaten on the head, apparently with a metal pipe, outside the Kappa Sigma fraternity house near the campus. Police said no one from the fraternity was involved in the early morning beating.

Boyd was hospitalized in critical condition. Fellow student Stephanie Millikin said he was being treated for swelling and pressure on the brain.

“Maybe something good can come out of this,” Millikin said. “If we can bring Fresno together, something good can come out of a negative situation.”