Cops said Monday they are looking into a possible bias crime after a group of Hasidic men pummeled an openly gay black man and broke his eye socket on a Williamsburg street.
Taj Patterson, 22, was out drinking on a party bus Dec. 1 at 5 a.m. when he left on foot and was attacked by a group of at least five Hasidic men on Flushing Avenue, cops said.
The thugs ordered Patterson to stay down and started screaming anti gay remarks at him, the sources said.
They allegedly threw him to the ground and started to stomp and kick him, according to police.
Patterson was beaten so badly that he suffered a broken eye-socket, torn retina, and cuts to his right knee and hip, cops said.
The driver of a B57 bus pulled over and tried to intervene– took out her cell phone and started snapping pictures, cops said.
That’s when the group of hotheads fled, leaving Patterson bloodied on the ground, sources said.
As they fled one of the men took his right shoe and threw it on a roof, the sources said.
The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the attack, cops said. Patterson was called to the 90th Precinct station house on Monday to make a statement.
He was too intoxicated to make a statement on the morning of the assault, sources said.
No arrests have been made.