A 43-year-old Michigan man admitted in federal court that he beat a Black teenage boy with a bicycle chain because he was driven by racial hatred and wanted the Black boy and his friends off the beach, USA Today reports.

Lee Mouat of Newport, Michigan allocuted his crimes as part of a plea agreement to willfully causing bodily harm in the beating of 18-year-old Devon Freelon on June 6th at Sterling State Park in Monroe, Michigan.  He now faces up to ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Mouat reportedly became enraged with the group of teens playing music at the beach.  As Mouat neared the beach with his family, a witness heard him say, “I wish someone would say something to me so I can beat them.” 

At some point, Mouat returned to the parking lot were an argument broke out.  Shouting racial slurs, Mouat approached Freelon and two friends as they were retrieving a portable speaker from a car.  Mouat went to his car, with the teens thinking he was leaving, but then approached the group as Mouat repeated yelled that no Blacks were allowed at that beach and that Black lives don’t matter.  He pulled out a bicycle chain with a lock attached and swing it repeatedly at Feelon, knocking two of the teen’s teeth out and breaking his jaw.  A swing at another of the teens missed.

“The young victim in this case suffered tremendously from this vicious, racially motivated attack,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Saima Mohsin for the Eastern District of Michigan.  “Every individual citizen has the right to not live in fear of violence or attack based on the color of their skin.”