Beating victim to speak out

ATLANTA,None — A man who was brutally beaten outside Atlanta's Pittsburgh neighborhood deli plans to speak about what happened Wednesday.

Atlanta police identified the victim as 20-year-old Brandon White. Channel 2's Craig Lucie obtained new surveillance video, which shows White walking inside the JVC Grocery and Deli on McDaniel Street.

Sources told Lucie that White was accompanied by another man in an orange shirt. In the video, White and the man exited the deli moments before White was attacked by members of the Pittsburgh Jack City Gang.

Since the video went viral, Atlanta police have teamed up with the FBI in the investigation of the attack. For several hours Tuesday, the FBI's Evidence Response Team took pictures and tried to lift fingerprints off the deli wall where White was cornered.

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The FBI may pursue the case as a federal hate crime because the men in the video are repeatedly shouting gay slurs at White. At a community meeting, a friend of Brandon White said White is trying to be brave.

"He said, 'I'm stepping up with courage right now.' That's the only thing he wanted me to say," Greg Smith told the group after meeting with White.

Smith said White has quite a story to tell about some of his attackers.

"It will shock a lot of people. There are some relationships that are there, and he'll define what those relationships are," Smith told Lucie.

Openly gay state Rep. Simone Bell said she hopes White's story will galvanize the state toward anti-hate legislation.

"We need to be very strategic about it. We have a federal hate crimes law. We don't have one here in Georgia," explained Bell.

White told friends he plans on having a news conference at noon on Wednesday.

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WSBTV