Man yelled ‘Black lives don’t matter,’ attacked Michigan teen with bike lock, feds say

A white man accused of an assault that left a Black teenager with a broken jaw and missing teeth has been charged with a hate crime.

Lee Mouat, 42, is accused of shouting racial slurs at a group of teens and saying, “Black lives don’t matter” and “n****** don’t belong on this beach” before striking one of them with a bike lock.

Four witnesses saw the June 6 incident in Michigan’s Sterling State Park, federal officials said in a criminal complaint.

A witness heard Mouat say he wanted to hit the teens with his cooler because they were “playing gang music” in a public parking lot, the complaint says.

The teenagers and Mouat began arguing, according to the complaint, and a witness heard the man say repeatedly, “This is my beach, n*****.”

Mouat retrieved a chain bike lock from his vehicle and struck an 18-year-old with it, investigators said.

Police arrived minutes later, according to the complaint. The teen was taken to a hospital and “treated for a facial fracture, facial lacerations, and the loss of several teeth.”

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, refers to the victim as “D.F.” Local news reports identify him as Devin Freelon, a senior at Orchard Center High School in Monroe, Michigan, about 40 miles south of Detroit.

Freelon received free dental surgery from a Michigan doctor ahead of his high school graduation, WJBK reported.

Mouat was charged in June with “ethnic intimidation, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and assault with a dangerous weapon,” McClatchy News previously reported.

The U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday that Mouat is also charged with hate crimes, “willfully causing bodily injury to an African-American teenager because of the teenager’s race.” He faces up to 10 years in prison if he is convicted.

Mouat’s mother, Dollie Mouat, told WXYZ her son “is not racist.” His brother said Mouat was “beyond drunk” during the attack.

More than 50 supporters organized a “Justice for Devin” protest in June as Mouat was arraigned, the Sentinel-Standard reported.

This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 9:07 AM with the headline "Man yelled ‘Black lives don’t matter,’ attacked Michigan teen with bike lock, feds say."