The NAACP of Des Moines, Iowa, has sent out a release calling for all local Black people to stay on high alert after a young man was brutally attacked on Saturday by three white men.
The group issued the release on Sunday just one day after 22-year-old DarQuan Jones was beaten while on his way to his girlfriend's house. While walking at around 3:25 a.m., Jones was allegedly hit in the face and choked by three white men who yelled racial slurs at him during the ordeal, according to the Des Moines Register.
The young man's father, Daryl Jones Jr., shared gruesome photos on his Facebook page of DarQuan at the hospital, showing large gashes and cuts around his eyes and on his hands.
Warning: The below pictures are sensitive in nature.
During a press conference on Sunday, Daryl said that the men broke DarQuan's face in five places and left him perplexed.
"He said, 'Dad, why did this happen to me?' And I couldn't answer back. It brought tears to my eyes. "[The suspects] know what they did. I don't want an uproar, I just want justice," Daryl said.
The Des Moines Register reported that a woman in a nearby apartment heard DarQuan's screams and came to his aid. Tyia Campbell added that the men yelled racial slurs at her and her friends, telling the group, "get out of our area, we're going to get all of you out of here."
Kameron Middlebrooks, president of the NAACP in Des Moines, and Betty Andrews, president of the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP, joined Daryl in calling for justice at the press conference.
"The young man, who is also an essential worker, was brutally beaten, called a n****r, called a monkey, and nearly had his life taken. If it wasn't for two witnesses that came to his aid, we would have been sitting here working with the family on funeral arrangements," Middlebrooks said, according to KCCI.
They demanded police find the men and charge them with a hate crime, explaining that the men were likely motivated by DarQuan's race.
In addition to his comments at the press conference, Middlebrooks later had the NAACP chapter release a notice on Facebook calling for Black people to be prepared for an increase in attacks.
"While we await the results of the police investigation, we ask for all members of the community to look out for one another. The only way that we can overcome these recent incidents is by working together. That includes us as a community working with our local government and police department," Middlebrooks wrote in the release.
"We strongly urge the DMPD and the city’s elected officials to investigate these attacks to bring about equitable outcomes for the victims. From Ahmaud Arbery to Breonna Taylor, recent events have shown that African-Americans nationwide are still grappling with the fatal effects of racism," the statement continued. "Des Moines is not immune to those effects and therefore must be at the forefront of standing against racism in every form to improve the quality of life for all residents.”
The city has seen other racially motivated attacks in recent days, according to local news outlet We Are Iowa.
A virtual event planned by the Des Moines City Council and the Des Moines Civil and Human Rights Commission was attacked by someone who posted racist and sexist language in the chat.
"Last week has been very daunting for us. We are done dying, and we are done being hashtags," Andrews said at the press conference.
