Dec 24, 2008 5:33 am US/Eastern
FBI: White Man Victim Of Obama Win Bias Attack
Ron Forte Had Been In Coma For Weeks After Being Run Down On Election Night In Port Richmond
STATEN ISLAND (CBS) ―
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President-elect Barack Obama speaks to the press on Nov. 7, 2008 in Chicago.
Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images
A 38-year-old Staten Island man is out of a coma and home, but he is going to need a lot of rehab. That is one part of his story. The other part of the story is how he got in the hospital. He was the victim of what police think may have been a racist hit-and-run, payback for the Barack Obama election. The odd part is the victim turned out to be white.
Eileen Forte received a horrifying phone call about her son, Ron.
"It was the most devastating thing in my life. I … I can't even tell you. I can't …" Eileen said before breaking down in front of CBS 2 HD cameras.
Then she saw him.
"My whole life changed. To see him … the way he was, with tubes coming out of his head, nose … a nightmare," Eileen said.
She said she thought it was over, that he would never come out of his coma, a coma from what was believed to be a hit and run in the Port Richmond section of Staten Island. But now, the police and the FBI think it may have been more.
Two 18-year-olds, Bryan Garaventa and Ralph Nicoletta were arrested because earlier that night -- election night -- they allegedly attacked Ali Kamara in an apparent "retaliation" for the Obama presidential victory. And investigators believe that later on the two may have driven into Ron Forte deliberately, thinking he was black or Latino. Forte was walking in the dark with a hood up, but the attack has left him with memory loss as well as many physical injuries.
"I was in a coma for three weeks," Ron Forte said, adding he had no idea why he was even in the hospital. "They told me, little by little."
He said he's not angry, just thankful it didn't happen to someone else.
"Better me than someone older, or a little kid," Ron said. "That's all I care about. I don't even think about them."
But if you ask his mother …
"Anybody like that … should be punished," Eileen said. "I'm being punished!"
CBS 2 HD has learned investigators believe Garaventa and Nicoletta stopped -- or came back -- to Ron Forte's body in the street and may have taken things that would identify him, things that were later traced back to one or both.
But ask Eileen about three weeks of prayers while Ron was in a coma...
"It's the best present anybody could ever have, anybody," she said, "that I can see him smile and know that he's here with me, and I'm holding his hand."
They're putting up the tree Tuesday night.
These are tough times for this family. The son is now out of work because of his injuries, and so is the mother, caring for her son. And, Ron Forte has a family of his own to take care of.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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