A former Marine from Montana suffered a concussion and a broken facial bone and had his eye swollen shut after, he says, two men made racial remarks and attacked him outside a bar in northern Wyoming May 7.
Twenty-five-year-old Clayton Denny, who is half African American and half Chippewa Cree, said that he had just come from a bike ride when he stopped inside the Beaver Creek Saloon for a beer.
Denny told the Billings Gazette that the incident occurred after the two men made racial remarks. Denny said he remembers walking away from the men and then remembers being on his back, taking kicks and punches to the face and head.
Police have arrested and charged Dylan Dygert, 21, and Jacob Robert Olson, 26. Both men have been charged with aggravated battery, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, the Sheridan Press reports. The Sheridan County Attorney’s Office will ultimately determine whether the men face federal hate crime charges in the attack.
Both men say that Denny attacked them and that they only fought in self-defense. They are being held on a $20,000 bond.
Read more at the Billings Gazette and the Sheridan Press.