BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Four juvenile teenagers were arrested for a hate crime early Friday morning, July 7th, after assaulting and threatening three men based on their race and sexual orientation.

Bellingham Police say officers were called to the 1300 block of Commercial Street at around 3:30 a.m. after they received notice of a group of people threatening to stab each other.

Their investigation revealed that the original assault took place earlier on the 1200 block of Granary Avenue.

Four teenagers, two from Bellingham, one from Burlington and one from Ferndale, approached a 26-year-old man sitting outside the Granary building and started to whip him with their clothing.

The man told them to leave him alone, but the attacks progressed into shouting homophobic and racist slurs at the victim.

After repeated physical and verbal attacks by the teenagers, the man began walking home and the four suspects followed him, continuing to call him slurs.

They eventually started to pick up large rocks and threw them at the victim.

The victim sustained swelling and cuts on the back of his head, right elbow and forehead due to the attack.

A friend of the first victim showed up along with another man to confront the group of teens about their actions.

The teens responded with threats to shoot and stab both men, along with more racist and homophobic slurs.

The friend of the first victim is black and both men who confronted the group identify as part of the LGBTQIA community.

Probable cause for a hate crime has been established against the four teens for maliciously and intentionally causing physical injury to the first victim due to their perception of his race and sexual orientation.

Their threats to kill and stab the second and third men along with their racist and homophobic slurs towards all three are also probable cause for committing the hate crime.

BPD says that any hate crime offense is deeply disturbing and intolerable, though the young age of the suspects and the violence they displayed is “exceptionally troubling.”

Three of the teenagers were 14 years old and the other was 17 years old.

The attack took place on the day before the Pride in Bellingham events set for this weekend.

All four juveniles were booked into the Whatcom County Juvenile Detention Center.