An 88-year old veteran of World War II, wounded in the leg at Okinawa, was found beaten to death outside of his lodge in Spokane, Washington.

USA Today:

An 88-year-old World War II vet who was wounded at Okinawa has died from head injuries suffered in a beating outside his lodge in in Spokane, Wash., apparently by two teenagers.

Delbert Belton, known as "Shorty," died Thursday from head injuries suffered in the attack Wednesday night outside the Eagles Lodge.

Police say they received a call about an assault and found the victim sitting in his car.

KXLY-TV quotes witnesses as saying two black male suspects attacked Belton as he was about to head inside the lodge to play pool. KHQ-TV reports that police believe the assault was a random attack.

Police, who have examined surveillance footage, say they are looking for two possible suspects between the ages of 16 and 19.

A friend, Ted Denison, told The Spokesman-Review that Belton was shot in the leg during the fighting in Okinawa in 1945.

"He was a tough old bird, I'll tell you that," he told the newspaper.

The newspaper says Belton was waiting outside the lodge for a friend because he did not want her to walk in alone.

A "random attack," is it? There have been a growing number of these "random attacks" this summer, in big cities and small towns. But we're not supposed to make it a race thing, right? These are kids just walking around - "bored," don't you know - until they come upon some random victim. We're supposed to ignore the fact that the victim is white and the perps are black because everyone knows there's no racial element to these crimes.

Now, if Shorty had been black and the kids white...well, you don't need much of an imagination to figure out how that would play out in the media.