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A black Muslim teenager said he was beaten on Election Night by four white men furious that Barack Obama was elected the nation's next President.
Ali Kamara, 17, was walking home when four white men leaped from a gold car and started kicking him and smashing him with a baseball bat at about 10 p.m. near his Staten Island home.
"I see the car coming. They looked at me and said, 'Obama!' They were not happy. They had hoodies on. They started hitting me with bats and my body started vibrating," said the Curtis High School, S.I., student.
Kamara said he tried to cover the back of his head, and broke away from his attackers. He managed to jump over a neighbor's fence to hide.
When the crew finally drove off, Kamara crept back to his Stapleton home.
"I was bleeding all over. I did not know them," the teen said. "I think it was a racist crime."
An NYPD spokesman said the department's Hate Crime Task Force was investigating the incident as a bias crime.
Kamara's mother, a health care employee, said she got a frantic call from her injured son while she was at work.
"He was whispering, 'I'm bleeding. They beat me with a baseball bat. I'm dying. I'm dying.' I was so worried," said his mom Janeba Ladepo, 36.
As she spoke, she held the bloody towel she used to staunch the blood coming from her son's wounds.
"My son does not deserve to get hit like this. For someone to say Obama and hit him, it sounds racist," she said.
Kamara's family moved to Staten Island from Liberia in 2000.
The teen said his attackers only screamed the word "Obama!" but he did not hear any other racial or religious slurs.
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Ali Kamara, 17, was walking home when four white men leaped from a gold car and started kicking him and smashing him with a baseball bat at about 10 p.m. near his Staten Island home.
"I see the car coming. They looked at me and said, 'Obama!' They were not happy. They had hoodies on. They started hitting me with bats and my body started vibrating," said the Curtis High School, S.I., student.
Kamara said he tried to cover the back of his head, and broke away from his attackers. He managed to jump over a neighbor's fence to hide.
When the crew finally drove off, Kamara crept back to his Stapleton home.
"I was bleeding all over. I did not know them," the teen said. "I think it was a racist crime."
An NYPD spokesman said the department's Hate Crime Task Force was investigating the incident as a bias crime.
Kamara's mother, a health care employee, said she got a frantic call from her injured son while she was at work.
"He was whispering, 'I'm bleeding. They beat me with a baseball bat. I'm dying. I'm dying.' I was so worried," said his mom Janeba Ladepo, 36.
As she spoke, she held the bloody towel she used to staunch the blood coming from her son's wounds.
"My son does not deserve to get hit like this. For someone to say Obama and hit him, it sounds racist," she said.
Kamara's family moved to Staten Island from Liberia in 2000.
The teen said his attackers only screamed the word "Obama!" but he did not hear any other racial or religious slurs.
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