John Weed, 59, was harassed, punched, and spit on at the Frederick County Fair in Maryland last Friday and died a day later at a local hospital. Frederick County State’s Attorney Charlie Smith claims the attack was not a hate crime, against police recommendations.

“We see no facts in this particular case that would lead anyone to believe there was an intent to kill, an intent to murder the victim,” Smith said, adding that he would be recommending manslaughter charges instead of first- or even second-degree murder.

Smith also denied that the attack was a hate crime: “Right now, what we know, it was over a dollar bill, it was not over race.”

Via Fox 5:

“This was over him asking him for a dollar bill. Now, obviously there was some degree of dialogue that occurred after that and it was negative dialogue, who said what? We don’t know at this point in time. The sheriff is still asking for people to come forward. This was not about the knockout game…this was all over kids asking for a dollar and there was something that broke bad after that,” said Frederick County State’s Attorney Charlie Smith. “There’s been a lot of people on social media, wanting them to be tried as adults. I can tell you I don’t make the law, I just prosecute people who break it. So the law does not permit states attorneys offices across the state of Maryland to charge a juvenile as an adult with manslaughter, with second-degree murder, with first-degree assault.”

Smith’s office also claimed the incident was unrelated to the infamous “knockout game,” with a chief juvenile attorney describing the attack as “a completely random act of violence.”

The narrative presented by the State’s Attorney’s office is directly at odds with local police’s description of the incident.

Via the Frederick News-Post:

The father and attorney of the two males arrested for Weed’s murder both defended the attackers and requested they be released from jail in Monday’s court hearing: