N.H. Officials Investigating Attack on Boy as Possible Hate Crime

New Hampshire investigators are looking into a disturbing incident with echoes from America’s racist past — an attack on an 8-year-old biracial boy that his family is calling an attempted lynching.

They are seeking to determine if the boy, who survived the harrowing ordeal and was later treated for rope burns to his neck, was the victim of a hate crime.

“To the extent that there is any credible information that this incident constituted a hate crime or a civil rights violation under New Hampshire law, the Office is prepared to take any and all appropriate action,” Attorney General Gordon MacDonald said in a statement.

The boy’s mother, Cassandra Merlin, said her son and his 11-year-old sister were taunted by a group of teenagers with racial epithets who said things like “white pride” before they strung him up with a rope from a tire swing and pushed him off a picnic table.

Image: A chorus of "We Shall Overcome" rises from a gathering against racism on Broad Street Park in Claremont Image: A chorus of "We Shall Overcome" rises from a gathering against racism on Broad Street Park in Claremont

A chorus of “We Shall Overcome” rises from a gathering against racism in Claremont, New Hampshire on Tuesday. James M. Patterson / The Valley News via AP

“They walked away and left him there hanging,” Merlin told the online publication The Root.

In an interview with a local paper, the boy’s grandmother said her grandson was able to escape after swinging back and forth at least three times. “I think he had a guardian angel,” Lorrie Slattery told The Valley News.

The incident happened on Aug. 28 in Claremont, a small factory city of some 13,000 people that is overwhelmingly white.

Merlin said she went public after her son was treated at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Claremont Police Chief Mark Chase later confirmed they were investigating.

“I know what is being reported has caused not just my community to ask questions but the entire nation wants to know more,” Chase said in a statement that appeared on the department’s Facebook page.

Gov. Chris Sununu said they have asked for regular updates on the investigation. “Hatred and bigotry will not be tolerated in New Hampshire,” he said.

In a show of support for the boy, there was a “Time for Reflection” rally on Sept.13 in Claremont. Some in the crowd carried signs that read “No More Strange Fruit,” a reference to the anti-lynching song made famous by Billie Holiday.