Two white men who the authorities say helped pin a Black man against a tree by an Indiana lake on the Fourth of July were charged on Friday with battery and other crimes. said it was investigating the confrontation, which Katharine C. Liell, Mr. Booker’s lawyer, said was clearly a racially motivated hate crime. Ms. Liell said that Mr. Purdy had been wearing a hat with a Confederate flag on it, which upset Mr. Booker. Mr. Booker said he learned on Friday that he had tested positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Ms. Liell said the men had spat and yelled in Mr. Booker’s face when they confronted him on July 4.

Source: New York Times July 17, 2020 19:47 UTC