VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Two men in Volusia County are facing charges under Florida's Hate Crime Law following a fight earlier this month.
Witnesses told deputies the trouble started when the men hurled racial slurs at a black man who was sitting in a restaurant having drinks with his white wife on Mother's Day.
Deputies believe it was clear the victim was targeted specifically because of his race.
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Though it may have normally been a misdemeanor, deputies said it was reclassified as a felony because it falls under the hate crime statute.
Tailgatorz Sports Bar & Grill in Edgewater is where a black man and his white wife were celebrating Mother’s Day when, witnesses told deputies, Warren "Randy" Stratton approached and asked if the black man, "was from Africa and if it was Africa day?"
According to reports, Stratton also made sexually charged remarks about the man's wife.
When the victim tried to wave him off, it apparently didn't work.
Reports show while still inside Tailgatorz, the men pushed each other, words were exchanged and others stepped in to separate them.
That’s when deputies said Troy Noe came in punching at the victim and a fight started.
The wife told deputies Noe called her husband "a (n-word) and her a (n-word) lover.”
Other witnesses said Stratton was also, "using racial slurs like (n-word) and (again asking), ‘Where are you from, Africa?’”
No one answered at Noe's $900,000 home. There was a large fence around Stratton's house with a sign outside reading "Low Line Cracker."
The Attorney General's office puts together a hate crime report every year. The latest available from 2017 shows there were 169 hate crimes reported by law enforcement statewide. Nearly half of them were based on race.
In this case, detectives wrote the only reason the victim "was targeted was because of his race as evident by the words and actions of the three subjects."
The third person mentioned there was Noe's son. He's facing misdemeanor battery charges, not a hate crime.
According to the report, Stratton admitted to deputies he asked the victim about Africa and asked the deputies, "That's where they all come from, right?”
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