Black man beaten, forced underwater in Iowa racial attack, NAACP says. 2 men arrested

Two men accused of beating a Black man and forcing his head underwater in a possibly racially motivated attack have been arrested, media outlets report.

DarQuan Jones, 22, says he was outside his girlfriend’s house in late May when two white men attacked him, thinking he was going to burglarize a home, the Des Moines Register reported. They punched him and held his head underwater in a creek, Jones told the newspaper.

“When they started dragging me to the creek, I thought it was over for me,” Jones told the Des Moines Register. “The only thing that was in my head was, ‘They’re going to kill me.’”

The Des Moines NAACP says it was a racially motivated crime, NBC News reported.

“If this is as the victim says it is, and the witnesses are reporting it as, it should be investigated as nothing less than a hate crime,” Des Moines NAACP President Kameron Middlebrooks told the news outlet. “We want to respect the process, but they were using racial slurs throughout the altercation.”

On Friday, Des Moines police announced charges of willful injury causing serious injury against Jesse James Downs, 27, and Dale Lee Millard, 28, KCCI reported.

A police spokesman said comments during the incident suggested race factored into the attack, but no evidence suggests it was a primary motive, a requirement for hate crime charges in the state, the Associated Press reported.

Jones had five broken face bones and a broken hand and wrist, KCRG reported.

“What we got here is justice,” said Daryl Jones, DarQuan Jones’ father, according to KCCI. “Like I said, my son is getting better. He is smiling. He is back doing a little bit. He’s getting a little better. I am just proud of my city coming together.”

This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 7:53 PM with the headline "Black man beaten, forced underwater in Iowa racial attack, NAACP says. 2 men arrested."