(DETROIT NEWS) Police and prosecutors are “widening the scope” of their investigation into last week’s beating of a 54-year-old white motorist to include the possibility that the mob assault was a hate crime, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Monday.
Craig insisted the beating of Steven Utash of Clinton Township was not an act of vigilantism, as some, including Mayor Mike Duggan, have claimed. The chief also said reports that Utash was robbed by the mob are false.
“There’s absolutely nothing in our investigation to show this was vigilantism,” Craig said. “(Utash) did not break the law, so there was no vigilantism involved, as has been put out there. What happened to that man was tragic, and should not have happened.
