Police seek 3 men in attack on Guatemalan man in Farmingville

A Hispanic man and hate crimes detectives canvassed Farmingville streets Friday for clues after three men beat him unconscious earlier this week as he was going home from work, Suffolk police said.

He was bicycling on Granny Road on Tuesday when the men got out of a pickup truck about 12:30 a.m. and attacked him, police said. The victim reported the attack the next day to police, who urged him to get treated for injuries to his face and arms, authorities said.

Only one attacker spoke -- "I hate these people" -- before the three kicked him at least six times without saying another word, said Juan, 42, a Guatemalan immigrant, who did not want to give his last name and spoke through an interpreter.

"I asked what's going on," he said. "I tried to get away, but I couldn't."

When he regained consciousness, the light brown truck was gone, Juan said, but he still had his wallet and bicycle.

Juan, a kitchen worker in a Farmingville restaurant, said he pedaled home to Coram and debated for a day whether to call the police.

He's not entirely sure but he thinks he was targeted because he is Hispanic: "I have no problems with anyone. That's what I keep asking myself. Why?"

He went to the Sixth Precinct on Wednesday after concluding that other immigrants never reported being assaulted and he wanted the men caught.

Immigrant activist Irma Solis of Farmingville said she happened to be there and acted as his interpreter. She said his face was swollen and discolored, and he had scrapes and bruises on an arm and a leg.

This is the first reported hate crime beating in Suffolk in some years, she said.

Solis was part of Make the Road when she helped the police department set up new hate crimes procedures after Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero was fatally beaten and stabbed in Patchogue by teenagers in 2008.

Juan said he supports his four children and his parents in Guatemala.

He thought he could make a better life for himself and his family by leaving his homeland, which is stricken by high crime and political strife: "We tend to think we're safer here."

Det. Sgt. James Brierton of the hate crimes unit said investigators and Juan canvassed the area for the pickup truck and asked businesses if they had heard of similar attacks. He asks anyone with information to call them at 631-852-6323 or Crime Stoppers at 800-220-TIPS.