Victim of videotaped Atlanta beating to speak

By Marcus K. Garner and Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The victim of a beating by men shouting anti-gay slurs is expected to talk about the incident at a press conference Wednesday. The press conference is scheduled for noon.

Channel 2 Action News The FBI has joined the investigation into the beating.

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Channel 2 Action News The young man was ambushed outside the store.

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John Spink, jspink@ajc.com The scene of last Saturday's attack. Gerald Rose Founder and CEO of New Order National Human Rights Organization came to the corner of McDaniel and Delevan Streets Tuesday, Feb 7, 2012 to appeal to the community and to the victim regarding the apparent gang related attack that happened at the JVC Grocery and Deli grocery store last Saturday.

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John Spink, jspink@ajc.com Gerald Rose Founder and CEO of New Order National Human Rights Organization (shown here) hugs a community member who came to the corner of McDaniel and Delevan Streets Tuesday, Feb 7, 2012 to appeal to the community and to the victim regarding the apparent gang related attack that happened at the JVC Grocery and Deli grocery store last Saturday. Federal authorities joined Atlanta police Monday in investigating video footage posted online of an apparent gang-related beating there.

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The man came forward to Atlanta police Tuesday after video of the attack got the attention of the FBI.

Atlanta Police Department spokesman Carlos Campos said that the widespread dissemination of the video led family members of the 20-year-old victim to contact police.

"Atlanta police investigators were able to locate the victim ... who gave a statement to investigators," Campos said in statement emailed to the news media Tuesday night.

The video, first released on YouTube and WorldHipHop.com and later reported on The Smoking Gun, shows three men pummeling an unsuspecting man coming out of a McDaniel Street grocery store in southwest Atlanta with a barrage of punches, kicks and even a tire. Police said the incident took place Saturday.

Since the video went viral, Atlanta police and other authorities have taken notice.

“We’re looking into the possibility of it being a federal hate crime,” FBI spokesman Stephen Emmett told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday.

In a prepared statement emailed to the media Monday night, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates called the video “appalling and unacceptable” and asked for community help identifying the perpetrators.

Community activists also called on witnesses to the attack to come forward with information so that those responsible can be identified.

Activist Gerald Rose, founder and CEO of New Order National Human Rights Organization, was talking to residents and business owners in the Pittsburgh neighborhood Tuesday morning.

"That was a human being who got jumped on for nonsense,” Rose said. “I’m very upset."

Rose also said it was inexcusable for there to be no witnesses willing to come forward.

"We aren't promised tomorrow anyway," he said. "Why not help go and find who did this?"

Devin Barrington-Ward, of the civil action organization Change Atlanta, was with Rose and decried the absence of a state hate crime law. Georgia hasn't had one since 2004, when the state Supreme Court struck down a 1999 statute on grounds that it was too vague.

“We need tougher laws on the books, so that this young man can feel the need to come forward and not live his life in fear,” Ward said.

Anyone with information about the incident shown in the video is asked to call Zone 3 police officers at 404-624-0674 or to call anonymously to Crime Stoppers Atlanta at 404-577-8477.

-- Photographer John Spink contributed to this article.