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Detroit driver who accidentally hit child beaten by mob

Driver beaten after accident in Detroit

A Detroit man is in critical condition after a neighbourhood mob nearly beat him to death when he stopped to check on a 10-year-old boy that he accidentally struck with his pickup truck.

The boy, identified as David Harris, stepped off the curb and into traffic when 54-year-old Steven Utash hit him, according to the Washington Post.

Utash is being treated at a Detroit hospital after being attacked Wednesday afternoon in an east side neighbourhood.

21-year-old Desmond Key, the boy’s uncle, said that the boy is expected to make a full recovery.

Police Sgt. Michael Woody said that the driver was not at fault.

“A preliminary investigation shows the kid stepped off the curb in front of him,” said Woody. “No way he could have stopped in time.”

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No arrests have been made in the beating of Utash; however, the boy’s father had been taken into custody on Thursday on an unrelated warrant.

According to Key, David was struck when walking to a nearby store with some friends. One of the youths raced back to the Harris home to tell his family about the accident.

Key said that he heard that David ran out into the street. “When I showed up my nephew was on the ground screaming,” he said.

When Key arrived on the scene, he also saw Utash being severely beaten by a gang of men in the driveway of a nearby gas station.

“When he finally had enough of trying to fight back he just fell to the ground. [Then] they kicked him a couple time and then they just left him alone,” said Key, who counted six or seven attackers. Some reports say there were as many as 10 or 12 attackers.

“We don’t know those people that did that to that guy. Our main focus is on David,” said Key, who claims they were not cheering on the attack or ‘rooting for it’.

Utash's family says he is currently in a medically-induced coma. Joseph Utash, Steven Utash's son, says that he believes the attack was racially motivated, based on witness accounts that indicate the men who beat his father, who is white, were black.

“As far as a hate crime, it might be,” Joseph Utash told CBS Detroit. “You know, it’s like you go in Detroit and you’re white, you don’t belong. Seriously. I’ve been pulled over by police before and they’re like ‘Get back across 8 Mile,’ like I’m not supposed to be over there, like I’m not allowed to go in Detroit.”

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