A man faces a civil rights violation and other charges after police say he attacked a group of black and Hispanic people with a hammer om a Massachusetts beach while yelling racial slurs.
State police arrested 24-year-old Gianpaolo Cerretani Sunday afternoon following the incident on Revere Beach.
According to police, Cerretani took a football from a young child. The group of black and Hispanic males, all between 16 and 20, took the ball from him and gave it back to the child.
In response, police say, Cerretani started swinging the hammer at the group while shouting racial epithets.
An 18-year-old Lowell man, who is Hispanic, was hit and sustained minor injuries. He declined treatment.
Police arrived to find that the group had overpowered Cerretani, subduing him and taking the hammer.
Cerretani had cuts on his head as troopers put him in handcuffs. Police say he continued to shout slurs and obscenities at the group, and called one of the troopers a pig.
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"I'll take you too," he shouted at one of the troopers, according to state police.
Police say the suspect tried to resist being put in the cruiser, and that when he was taken to Whidden Memorial Hospital to be treated for his injuries, he hurled another slur at a black security guard.
Cerretani faces a list of charges including a civil rights violation, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, criminal threatening, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
The suspect is being held on $1,040 bail and is expected to be arraigned Monday at Chelsea District Court. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.
