Attack on 2 Tourists Is Probed as a Hate Crime : Inquiry: One of the visitors to Laguna was beaten, the second man robbed by three armed assailants. No one has been arrested.

Police are investigating an attack on two tourists as a hate crime, based on an anti-gay slur by one of three armed robbers who fired two shots before taking $700 from one of the men and beating the other.

Jeff Brown, 31, and Steven Marsocci, 32, of Salt Lake City, were accosted on a stretch of beach off St. Ann’s Drive about 3 a.m. Friday by three attackers. It is unclear whether the attackers, who remained at large Saturday, were firing into the air or at the victims, police said. No one was hit by the gunfire.

After firing the shots on a dark stretch of beach, the robbers ordered the men to lie down in the sand and demanded money, according to a police report. The victims did as ordered and handed over their wallets, containing about $700, before one attacker asked: “Are you fags?” The men told police they did not respond, but one attacker went on to kick Marsocci in the mouth before fleeing with Brown’s money.

The attack occurred as the victims were returning to their room at the Capri Laguna hotel after buying cigarettes, Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Doris Weaver said.

The beach is not near an area of gay bars that has been the site of past hate crimes, including the January, 1993, beating of a 55-year-old man who was nearly killed when his skull was impaled on a rock on the beach.

No arrests have been made in Friday’s attack, but police have done a composite drawing of one suspect.

The victims told police that the assailants, one of whom wore a black bandanna over his lower face, appeared to have a rifle and handguns. Police did not find any expended bullet shells on the beach.

The victims--who declined medical treatment from authorities--returned home Friday to Salt Lake City, police said.

The attack, which the men told police lasted about two minutes, was being investigated as a hate crime because of the slur by one assailant, Weaver said.

While police said stepped-up beach patrols have resulted in a relatively crime-free summer, Weaver urged caution among late-night beach-goers in the wake of the attack.

According to recent statistics from the Orange County Human Relations Commission, gays and lesbians were the most-targeted victims of hate crimes last year in Orange County. In 1993, there were 33 reported incidents against gays and lesbians in the county, the commission found.

One of the most widely publicized incidents involved the Laguna Beach attack in which the 55-year-old man was beaten so badly that his face was virtually unrecognizable.

Two young men who authorities said were looking for gays to fight pleaded guilty to charges arising from that attack. One received a 10-year prison sentence and the other received one year in jail and five years of probation.

In another incident two months later, a man shouted anti-gay remarks and hurled a Molotov cocktail against the outer wall of a Newport Beach bar as he drove by, causing minor damage. The man, who police say had a lengthy psychiatric history, was committed to an institution.

Rusty Kennedy, the commission’s executive director, said Saturday he knows of no other violent hate crime against gays in Laguna Beach this summer, but that hate-related activity against gays and other groups throughout the county continues.

“There’s no corner of our county that is immune from hate-related activity,” he said.

Laguna Beach City Councilman Robert F. Gentry said the January, 1993, incident showed that “Laguna Beach can be a target for people with hate in their heart. It’s very, very frightening. . . . People know where to go to look for gay people.”

After hearing about Friday’s incident, Gentry said he feels certain it was not simply a robbery but a targeted hate crime. “If you’re gay, you know when something like this occurs if they liked your jewelry or they hated who you are.”

Gentry said the city can’t prevent hate crimes from occurring, but it can report and prosecute them and track when and where they happen for police patrol purposes.

And, perhaps most importantly, Gentry said, the city needs to educate gays and lesbians, especially tourists, on being careful.

“Oftentimes I think gay and lesbian tourists might come to Laguna and let their guard down a little bit,” Gentry said. “These guys probably had no idea that walking on that stretch of beach at that time of night is dangerous.”

Times staff writer Tracy Weber contributed to this report.