A 34-year-old Grosse Pointe Park man is undergoing surgery today after he was severely beaten Saturday on Detroit’s east side, moments after exiting his vehicle at the scene of a crash. Nate Szczerbinski said he’d been driving the wrong direction on one-way Vernor Highway and, as he went to turn around, a burgundy van hit him nearly head-on.
He got out to check on everyone. “They were like, ‘Did you see what the [[expletive) you did?’ ” Szczerbinski said. “And then they proceeded to hit me. All three of them were just hitting me and kicking me, spitting on me and calling me ‘white [[expletive).’ ”

Szczerbinski, who is white, said the three men were black. He didn’t fight back, he said, and was afraid to give the full story to police until he reached the hospital.

Detroit police spokesman Adam Madera said Szczerbinski, once in the hospital, told police that the swelling to his face was from a beating, not the crash.

Police then went to the home of the other driver, 20, and arrested him on an assault charge, Madera said. Officers are seeking two other men suspected of involvement, and descriptions aren’t immediately available. Police said it’s up to prosecutors to decide whether the allegations involve ethnic intimidation.


http://www.freep.com/article/20140609/NEWS02/306090130/driver-beaten-Detroit