B-N Man Claims He Was Attacked for Being Black
By: Jacob Long, WMBD/WYZZ-TV
Updated: May 7, 2012
BLOOMINGTON - A Twin Cities father and grandfather with cancer believes he is the victim of a hate crime.
He said Monday a group of white men targeted and attacked him over the weekend because he is black. It's a story you'll see only on WMBD 31 News.
57-year-old John Lloyd Grant said Monday he went to Winner's Bar on S. Main St. in Bloomington to play pool with friends Sunday night.
But he said their night took a turn for the worse as soon as they walked through the door.
"Three white guys were sitting at the bar and one of the guys said 'Look at the three monkeys come in,'" Grant said.
Grant, who is on disability for pancreatic cancer, said the racial comments continued when he went to the bathroom.
"A big, tall white man came into the bathroom behind me and told me 'You and your "n" friends' need to get on out of here," he said.
Grant said he began to feel unsafe, so he went to his car to leave. But he said the men followed him and attacked him in the bar's parking lot.
"(It) felt like I was going to get killed. The way they just, they were just constantly beating me. Constantly beating me," he recalled.
Grant is left with injuries he feels would have been worse had he not covered up his head.
"This is not the way I look. My face is swollen. I have a laceration here. My side, they kicked me all in my side," he said.
Now Grant is pressing police to make an arrest for what he feels is a racially motivated crime.
"I never saw them before in my life. There has been an injustice because of the racial things they were saying," he said.
Bloomington Police told WMBD 31 race was not mentioned in the initial report made on Sunday.
But the report does firm up what Grant is claiming, that he was attacked for no apparent reason.
Police said it remains a "he said, he said," situation and the case is closed. They said if Grant wants to press charges or make a hate crime claim, he will have to file a complaint.
He said Monday a group of white men targeted and attacked him over the weekend because he is black. It's a story you'll see only on WMBD 31 News.
57-year-old John Lloyd Grant said Monday he went to Winner's Bar on S. Main St. in Bloomington to play pool with friends Sunday night.
But he said their night took a turn for the worse as soon as they walked through the door.
"Three white guys were sitting at the bar and one of the guys said 'Look at the three monkeys come in,'" Grant said.
Grant, who is on disability for pancreatic cancer, said the racial comments continued when he went to the bathroom.
"A big, tall white man came into the bathroom behind me and told me 'You and your "n" friends' need to get on out of here," he said.
Grant said he began to feel unsafe, so he went to his car to leave. But he said the men followed him and attacked him in the bar's parking lot.
"(It) felt like I was going to get killed. The way they just, they were just constantly beating me. Constantly beating me," he recalled.
Grant is left with injuries he feels would have been worse had he not covered up his head.
"This is not the way I look. My face is swollen. I have a laceration here. My side, they kicked me all in my side," he said.
Now Grant is pressing police to make an arrest for what he feels is a racially motivated crime.
"I never saw them before in my life. There has been an injustice because of the racial things they were saying," he said.
Bloomington Police told WMBD 31 race was not mentioned in the initial report made on Sunday.
But the report does firm up what Grant is claiming, that he was attacked for no apparent reason.
Police said it remains a "he said, he said," situation and the case is closed. They said if Grant wants to press charges or make a hate crime claim, he will have to file a complaint.
