A black man went on a rampage in New York City’s Union Square on Wednesday, savagely attacking a 62-year-old white man and leaving him brain dead, police said.

The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating LeShawn Marten, 31, after witnesses say he attacked 62-year-old Jeffrey Babbitt, a retired train conductor, reportedly shouting things such as “I hate white people” and “The next white person who walks by I’m going to [expletive],” CBS New York reported.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the attack is being investigated as a hate crime because of the language used by Mr. Marten.

“His fist went in and the man’s head bobbed and he hit the ground and you could hear his skull hitting the ground,” one witness told CBS New York.

Another witness said the suspect hit two other people and asked for police to come.

Mr. Babbitt has been in a coma since the attack.

“I don’t believe that. I don’t know why that happened. He is very nice,” the victim’s friend Igor Sapozhnikov told CBS New York.