White Michigan man broke Black teen’s jaw with bike lock, yelled ‘Black lives don’t matter’ and called him and friends the N-word, feds say

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A white Michigan man attacked a group of Black teenagers on a beach and broke one kid’s jaw, federal authorities said.

Lee Mouat, 42, fractured 18-year-old Devin Freelon’s jaw and knocked out several of his teeth when he hit him with a bike lock on June 6, the Justice Department said in a press release Tuesday. Mouat has been charged with a federal hate crime.

Freelon and two of his friends were chiling on a public beach in Monroe, Mich., about 40 miles south of Detroit, when Mouat approached them, feds said in an affidavit. One of Freelon’s friends told the FBI that Mouat yelled at them multiple times, “This is my beach, [N-word]!”

Mouat complained about Freelon and his friends' music, one person told the feds. The witness heard Mouat say, “these [N-words] are playing gang music,” and “I wish someone would say something to me so I can beat them.”

A third witness heard Mouat yell, “Black lives don’t matter” at the teenagers and follow it with “I’ll show you.”

After Mouat attacked Freelon, police arrived and stopped his Jim Crow-like attack, according to the affidavit. According to the 2010 census, 88% of Monroe’s population is white and only 6% is Black.

In addition to the federal hate crime charge, Mouat is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, ethnic intimidation and assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, local NBC affiliate WDIV reported.

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