Peekskill , New York ( CNN ) -- Police in Peekskill are investigating whether four men accused of brutally beating an Ecuadorian man can be charged with a hate crime , officials said . Julio Serrano , 39 , remains in critical condition after he was attacked Saturday , police said . Detective Sgt . Raymond Henderlong said police are still gathering information on whether hate was a motive in the attack in the small Hudson River town . `` We are going to exhaust every avenue to see if this was racially motivated , '' Henderlong said . `` We are looking into whether they were targeting him because of his background . '' Police said Serrano was walking near his home early Saturday when he was attacked . Surveillance video shows him staggering up a flight of stairs after fleeing his attackers , who follow and eventually ambush him as he seeks refuge in a building . Serrano suffered severe head injuries . Ronnie Juett , 23 ; Jarron Sligh , 23 ; and Keith Walker , 18 , have been charged with gang assault , police said . Jamar Walker , 19 , is awaiting arraignment in Peekskill County Court . According to the 2000 census , Peekskill has a population of about 22,000 . Nearly 22 percent is of Hispanic or Latino origin . Peekskill Police Chief Eugene Tumolo said it is possible that Serrano was beaten `` because of the fact he is a Latino male , and a lot of these people are immigrants . '' `` Even animals should n't be beaten like this . Nothing human , nothing alive should be beaten the way this poor man was . It was an incredibly cowardly and vicious attack , '' he said . In April , jurors convicted a Long Island man of manslaughter as a hate crime in the death of an immigrant from Ecuador . Jeffrey Conroy was tried in the death of Marcelo Lucero , 37 , who was fatally stabbed in the chest on November 8 , 2008 , in Patchogue . Conroy was also found guilty of gang assault and conspiracy as well as of assaulting three other Latino men on Long Island . Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center said that increasingly virulent hate speech emerging from anti-immigrant groups has a role in recent attacks on immigrants . `` This is yet another example of America 's anti-immigrant propaganda to demonize immigrants , '' Potok said . `` We 've seen these cases popping up around the nation because of this type of hate speech . Words have consequences , '' he said .
Hispanic man beaten 37 in New York , Peekskill . three men are accused in the attack . `` Nothing alive should be beaten the way this poor man was , '' police chief says .