3 Arrested in Attempt to Drive African American Family Out of Home

By By Jason Kandel, NBCLosAngeles.com

Credit: NBCLA

3 Arrested in Attempt to Drive African American Family Out of Home

January 26, 2013 Updated Jan 26, 2013 at 1:21 PM PDT

Two men and a teenage boy were arrested in connection with a series of race-based attacks on an African American family in an attempt to drive them out of Compton in Los Angeles, sheriff’s officials said.

A group of Latino males who claimed to be in a local street gang used metal pipes and shouted racial epithets at a black man who had recently moved into the neighborhood, sheriff’s officials said.

One of the suspects, identified as Efren Marquez, 21, allegedly pointed a gun at the victim and threatened to shoot him while he was being beaten with a metal pipe allegedly by a second suspect, identified as Jeffrey Aguilar, 19, officials said.

After the attack, the group left in a black sport utility vehicle.

Marquez and Aguilar returned 30 minutes later with a group of up to 20 gang members, who surrounded the front of the victims’ home shouting racial epithets and telling them that members of the African American race -- using the “n-word” -- were not allowed to live in the neighborhood, sheriff’s officials said.

An unidentified member of the group threw a beer bottle through the front living room window.

Aguilar, Marquez and a juvenile were arrested on Thursday, said Capt. Mike Parker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau.

They face hate crime charges.

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