Davis police reported Tuesday the arrest of a man on suspicion of battery — with possible hate crime and other charges forthcoming — after a weekend altercation in the downtown area.
According to a Davis Police Department Facebook post, officers were dispatched at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday to investigate reports of a physical fight between two men in an alley near the 200 block of E Street.
“The officers conducted an investigation and found that a verbal argument between the two had escalated into a physical fight after the victim asked the other person to leave the area of his business because he was trespassing,” the post said. “During the incident, Michael Dean Ostland (45 years old, out of the city of Corinth) also made comments regarding the victim’s race that could be categorized as a possible hate crime. The victim suffered visible injuries.”
Officers arrested Ostland on a battery charge as well as a misdemeanor warrant from an outside jurisdiction. The case has been forwarded to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office with recommended additional hate crime and false imprisonment charges, police said.