Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) D.C. Police released a surveillance video Thursday of former Marine Christopher Marquez being beat up, robbed and left unconscious last Friday night. Marquez said the attack was racially motivated.
The grainy video appears to show one of the three suspects throwing Marquez to the ground as the two are leaving a McDonald’s on E Street NW. It also shows the black suspects, believed to be teens, kicking Marquez as he lays on the ground.
Marquez told police the suspects called him a racist and beat him up because he is Hispanic.
“There is no audio in the video, or the witnesses have not provided us with any type of an exchange between the subject and the victim at the time, so all we have is really one side of the story at this point,” said police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck.
Police also can’t confirm Marquez’s claim the suspects were part of the Black Lives Matter group.
Sternbeck said there were witnesses at the busy McDonalds when it happened, but it was the victim himself who reported the attack after he regained consciousness and went home. Now the police department is hoping those witnesses will report what they saw as they look to piece together the details.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 202-727-9099 or text 50411.
