By Associated Press - Tuesday, April 20, 2021

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Authorities in Des Moines have charged two white men accused of attacking a Black man on a residential street in front of their children with hate crimes.

The attack happened Saturday in the city’s Capital Heights neighborhood, the Des Moines Register reported. Joseph William Rossing, 35, and Robert Ray Shelton, 49, both of Des Moines, had met in the street as Rossing sought to sell kids scooters to Shelton, police said. That’s when the victim drove by and yelled at the men to get their children out of the street.

Witnesses told police that the men pried open the victim’s door open and punched and kicked the victim in the face while yelling racial slurs at him.

According to court documents in the case, Rossing is on parole for various convictions ranging from theft and drug counts to assault and is a member of a white supremacist gang. Shelton is on probation for a marijuana possession charge, police said.

Both men are charged with assault in violation of individual rights causing bodily injury, Iowa’s hate crime charge.

Rossing and Shelton were still being held at the Polk County Jail on Tuesday morning, according to online inmate records. Preliminary hearings for both men are scheduled for April 28.

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