Man injured in alleged racial beating "not coming home anytime soon"

A West Point man beaten by a crowd in what at least one witness said may have been a racially-motivated incident is still working on what his family said will probably be a long recovery.

A Marine and Iraq war veteran, Ralph Weems, 32, was the victim of a severe beating in August at the hands of a crowd at a Huddle House in West Point. He and his friend David Knighten ended up there after allegedly leaving a Waffle House where he was told it wasn't "safe for whites" in the aftermath of the death of Ferguson, Mo. teen Michael Brown.

Knighten, an Air Force veteran, said he was stopped outside the restaurant and warned, and when he walked inside, Weems was already involved in an altercation.

After police were called in regards to a disturbance, the two left Waffle House and went to Huddle House. Several other patrons of the restaurant were asked to leave at the same time, and it's not clear if they were the ones who attacked Weems once they reached Huddle House, but Knighten said he couldn't get to his friend to help him because he was held back by the crowd. He told the Associated Press at the time that he heard racial slurs being used against Weems.

Weems was beaten unconscious and was hospitalized in critical condition. West Point Police Chief Tim Brinkley has been fairly quiet with the exception of releasing some press releases since August. He was not available for comment Monday.

Constance Levail McFarland, 21, Marquavious McMillian, 20, and Courtez McMillian, 22, both of Aberdeen, are charged with aggravated assault in the incident in which Weems was wounded.

The FBI and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation were brought in early in the case in order to help determine if the crime was able to be prosecuted as a hate crime. At this point, there is still no word on whether the case has been taken to a grand jury or not.

In September, Weems was moved to a VA facility in Texas that could address his specific needs. Weems' family is tight-lipped about his condition, but his father said he is getting better, slowly but surely.

"Without getting into too much detail, he's physically made a lot of improvements," said his father, Ralph Weems III. "Traumatic brain injury takes a long time to recover in a lot of different ways. He's not coming home anytime soon."

Before Weems was transferred to Texas, the administrator of a Facebook group called "Standing Up For Ralph Weems" said that time in the Marines may have prepared him a little for the fight that lies ahead.

"The rehab facility he is going to will push him harder than he has been pushed in years," it reads. "It's kinda like he's going through Boot Camp all over again. But he made it through it once before, there is no doubt that he will do it again."

A GoFundMe.com site set up for Weems said there are other sites the family is looking at for continuing his recovery, one in Arkansas and one in Louisiana.

"He is waiting on recommendations from doctors about where to go next to complete the next stage of recovery. There are two options out there," the page said.

Weems' father said people have been very supportive of him in his struggle.

"We've been supported by the community very well," he said. "I can only tell you that the prayers of so many have been a very humbling experience."

At this point, Weems' family doesn't want to talk specifically about his recovery process.

"All things considered he's doing pretty well, but he's still got a long way to go," Weems' father said.

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com or (601) 961-7236. Follow @TRex21 on Twitter.