FARMINGTON – Farmington police are investigating a possible “racially motivated” battery against a Native American woman on Sunday.

A Facebook post by a Farmington resident who knows the victim said the woman was walking on Main Street when two men and a woman “jumped” the victim “saying something about white supremacy and Happy Independence Day (expletive).”

Farmington Police Department spokeswoman Nicole Brown said three suspects got out of the car and started “battering” the woman.

“She expressed to the officer that she felt it was racially motivated because she is a Native American, and they said ‘Happy Independence Day’ to her as they battered her,” Brown said.

Brown said the victim believes she lost consciousness, and the responding officer saw evidence of an assault on the woman’s body and on the street where it occurred.

“We take these kinds of cases very seriously,” Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe said. “FPD detectives are fully investigating the incident.”

While the assault appears to be racially motivated, the police cannot declare it a hate crime. Rather, the district attorney would need to determine from police evidence if it is a hate crime and if so, the district attorney would file a request from the judge as a sentencing enhancement, Brown said.

If the request is approved, then it would add time to the base sentence; however, that request cannot be made until all the evidence is gathered and the case is turned over to the district attorney.

Because the assailants came from behind, the victim didn’t have much information to describe her attackers.

The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is asked to call the police at (505) 599-1068.

mmitchell@durangoherald.com