Three Boys Arrested in Assault

Three 14-year-old boys have been arrested on suspicion of a hate crime after beating an Asian American store manager they had taunted with ethnic slurs and white power slogans, Huntington Beach police reported Sunday.

The attack occurred Saturday about 2:30 p.m. in a parking lot behind a 99 Cent store near Springdale Street and Edinger Avenue, said Lt. William Stuart. The victim requested that his name not be released.

According to police, the manager was working behind the store when three teens approached and began insulting him with racial slurs. “They proclaimed themselves as white power people. He told them to leave, but they started taunting [the manager] and gave him a one-armed Nazi-style salute,” Stuart said.

The victim was surrounded and one of the teenagers struck him on the head from behind. Then all three youths began hitting him with metal pipes, police said.

“As they ran away, they swore they would return and kill him,” Stuart said.

The victim was shaken up but did not require hospitalization.

He was able to give police a description of the youths, which led to their arrests several blocks away. All three were booked on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, and interfering with an individual’s civil rights, police said. They are being held at Juvenile Hall.