A 50-year-old cyclist was reportedly brutally beaten by a neighbor down the street from his home in a Houston suburb. Elliot Reed believes the incident was racially motivated.

Reed rides his bike around every morning, according to ABC 13 he came in contact with a driver on Friday, Oct. 29, while at a intersection in Seabrook, Texas. The man behind the wheel allegedly told Reed that he didn’t belong in the neighborhood. The he started antagonizing him.

“He’s just looking at me at the stop sign. He said, ‘You need to get out of this neighborhood because you’re making a lot of people nervous,’” Reed explained. “He said I need to get off this neighborhood. He said, ‘You don’t live here, and if I catch you, I’m gonna do something to you.’”

Reed says at first he ignored the man, who responded by parking his pickup truck about 50 ft behind Reed and getting out. Reed took out his phone to record the man, who was later identified as Collin Fries, he started calling Reed the N-word. Witnesses told Fox 26 Fries repeatedly said the offensive word before charging Reed and attacking him.

Police reports say several witness confirmed that Fries, who’s white, chased the victim from the road to the sidewalk before catching him and punching him. Reed told the news station that was “the last thing I remember.” Witnesses told authorities that Fries continuously punched Reed, a total of 12 times.

Reed got multiple injuries including a broken tooth, fractured cheekbone, a burst blood vessel in his eye. He will likely need surgery to repair. Reed had to have than a dozen stitches to his face.

Angie Reed, the victim’s wife, believes her husband “was attacked because he Black.” She added, “I don’t care where you live, you don’t deserve to be disrespected by the color of your skin.” Fries reportedly was arrested and released on a bond of $100 after being charged with misdemeanor aggravated assault, a charge Angie Reed called “insulting and disrespectful.”

The district attorney’s office said in a statement that they were “still in the initial stages of the review of this incident” and that it was too soon to determine if this incident was indeed a hate crime. “What happens with regard to whether a charge is increased or a hate crime enhancement is added will depend upon the totality of the evidence,” the statement added.

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