Teens in cab attack will not be charged with hate crimes

Three juveniles who allegedly assaulted a cab driver and his passenger in Center City Saturday night while shouting racial slurs will not be charged with a hate crime, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.

The teens, who are black, were not charged with hate crimes because there was no evidence that the assault was motivated by the victims' race, said Tasha Jamerson, district attorney spokeswoman. Just shouting racial epithets during the commission of a crime doesn't rise to the level of ethnic intimidation, she said.

"They just didn't have that in this case," she said. "If they had somebody who, two blocks before, heard them say 'We're going to beat somebody up because they're white, brown or purple,' it might be different."

However, the three teens - two of whom are 17 and one who is 15 - have all been hit with additional counts of aggravated assault, simple assault, conspiracy and recklessly endangering another person after the passenger in the cab, Brian Goldman, came forward Monday.

Around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Goldman was in a cab that was stopped at a red light at 15th and Chestnuts when he and his 53-year-old cab driver were assaulted at random. Goldman escaped but the cab driver was able to flag down officers who nabbed the teens.