Teen Brothers May Be Charged With Hate Crime

Two brothers who live in a wealthy waterfront neighborhood are charged in a blow-dart attack on a black bicyclist during an early morning prowl in their mother’s red Mercedes.

Their lawyer portrays the attack as an act of “drunken stupidity” by boys who are good athletes and solid students at an elite private high school.

But police in Pompano Beach, where the March 30 attack occurred, have recommended the teenagers, who are white, be charged with assault under the state’s hate crime statute.

“We have a statement by one of the teenagers who said earlier that evening they had a conversation about ‘going out and shooting some niggers,”’ said Pompano Beach police spokeswoman Sandra King.

Edward Chapman, the 54-year-old victim, said the boys in the Mercedes were laughing at him after he pulled the three-inch, needlelike dart from his back.

“They were just tickled to death at what they had done,” Chapman recalled.

Police charged 18-year-old Jason Kovalcin and 16-year-old Andrew Kovalcin with aggravated assault, a second-degree felony. If prosecutors apply the hate-crime statute, it could push the assault to a first-degree felony, punishable by up to 30 years in prison.