MS man beaten after he's warned restaurant wasn't safe for whites

quote:

---

WEST POINT, Miss. -- West Point police said a man received life-threatening injuries in what they are investigating as an aggravated assault at a restaurant.


Knighten, who said he had served with the Air Force in Afghanistan, said he came out of the restroom to find Weems surrounded. "I was trying to defuse the situation," he said.

Knighten said some people blocked him from leaving with Weems. When he got out, he said, Weems was down and people were kicking him. Knighten said others attacked him, adding "I do remember racial slurs being yelled from the crowd."

Knighten says he has broken bones in his face, a cut over his left eye and a blood clot in his right eye.

"This does not appear to be a hate crime," he said in the press release. "We are investigating this as an aggravated assault. It's very early in this investigation but thus far the evidence and statements suggest that a verbal altercation turned physical and somebody got hurt."

---