St. Louis Police Say No Racial Motive In Hammer Attack: ‘We Think It Was The Wrong Place, Wrong Time’

Officials in St. Louis are throwing cold water on speculation that the bludgeoning death of a Bosnian immigrant was racially motivated and/or related to Ferguson.

The St. Louis Dispatch reported:

“There is no evidence that this was a crime occasioned by the race or ethnicity of the victim,” Mayor Francis Slay declared in a formal statement. He added, “Speculation that this attack had anything to do with the Ferguson protests is absolutely unfounded.”

The police have been singing the same tune. “We think it was wrong place, wrong time,” police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said.

I’m sure that’s comforting to the other people who live in that South St. Louis Bevo Mill neighborhood: 32-year-old Bosnian immigrant and newlywed Zemir Begic wasn’t the victim of a hate crime, or retaliation for the Michael Brown shooting. He was just in the “wrong place” (his own neighborhood) at the “wrong time.” 

On Saturday night, about an hour before a group of black teens in South St. Louis bludgeoned Begic to death with hammers, another potential victim fought off an attack from the same group of hammer wielding thugs.

24 year old Seldin Dzananovic escaped the attack suffering only bruises and scratches after exchanging words with the group when they insulted his girlfriend.  

Prior to these attacks, an eye-witness claims to have heard “black people running up and down the street saying, ‘Eff the white people, kill the white people.'” 

At approximately 1:30 am, according to the St. Louis Dispatch,  “members of the group yelled at Begic, his fiancée and two others as they walked to Begic’s car. As the vehicle drove away, one teen jumped on the back and began beating on it. Begic stopped and got out, and one of the men taunted him to fight before all four attacked — and continued to beat him after he fell to the ground”.

If only Begic had not been in the wrong place at the wrong time, huh?