Are four months of non-stop racial rhetoric coming home to roost in St Louis?

A white St. Louis man was beaten to death by black and Hispanic teenagers who attacked his car with hammers early Sunday, then  attacked the man when he got out of the vehicle.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the man was a Bosnian immigrant, 32-year-old Zemir Begic. Another Bosnian who was with him, Suad Nuranjkovic, 49, said he and Begic were going home from a bar when the teens started banging on the vehicle.

Nuranijkovic said he fled on foot.

“I was afraid that if one of them had a gun, they were going to shoot me, so I didn’t know what to do,” he said.

Meanwhile, another man, also a Bosnian, was attacked by hammer-wielding teens about an hour earlier in the same neighborhood, the Post Dispatch reported.

Seldin Dzananovic, 24, told the newspaper he said he was able to fight the hoods off, suffering only cuts to his hands and neck.

Sunday night, the Bosnian immigrant community took to the streets to demonstrate against the killing, and police in riot gear were on hand to keep things quiet. (Oddly enough, no cars were burned or stores looted.  How could that have been?)

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson showed up and ludicrously tried to assure the demonstrators that the attack wasn’t related to “race or ethnicity,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

“There is no indication that the gentleman last night was targeted because he was Bosnian,” Dotson said.

Dotson might right. He might also be deliberately obtuse. It’s tough to tell if someone’s Bosnian just by looking him through a car window.

It’s not hard to tell if he’s white, though.

Two suspects are in custody and two more are being sought, the Post-Dispatch reported:

Victim of fatal hammer attack, Zemir Behic, 32. @ChiefSLMPD addressed crowd of abt 75, saying 2 juveniles in custody. pic.twitter.com/xVMkBH3EKN

— joelcurrier (@joelcurrier) December 1, 2014

Black teens with hammers attacked a total of three white people. One died. Media censoring. #tcot http://t.co/PyEnHLojyt

— Kyle Rogers (@kyle_rogers76) December 1, 2014

Zemir with his wife Arijana, married for only six months before his murder in St. Louis. pic.twitter.com/7uvwGx7ykk

— BHDragons (@BH_Dragons) December 1, 2014

@TIMENOUT Will the St Louis Rams pay tribute to poor #zemirbegic how about Sharpton or Jackson ? Obama will have a speech for sure ??

— Silas (@horsesandhounds) December 1, 2014

@TIMENOUT @chris63414391 @toby_dorena my GOD! #Ferguson protests have created monsters!

— Mr J. (@TexasTiger78) December 1, 2014

Will @BarackObama acknowledge #ZemirBegic being beat to death with hammers at his meeting with Civil Rights groups today?

— Mary Forbes (@MaryForbes14) December 1, 2014

R.I.P Zemir Begic 1981-2014. The Bosnian community weeps. #JusticeForZemir pic.twitter.com/a9nLo0ZJFP

— BHDragons (@BH_Dragons) December 1, 2014

We all know the answer to that. If Obama had a son, he wouldn’t look Bosnian.

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Joe Saunders

Joe Saunders, a 25-year newspaper veteran, is a staff writer and editor for BizPac Review who lives in Tallahassee and covers capital and Florida politics. Email Joe at [email protected].

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