NEW YORK AP – Four attackers may have mistaken two brothers walking arm in arm as gay before using an aluminum baseball bat, a bottle and their feet to beat one of them into critical condition, New York City police said Monday.

One of the attackers used an anti-gay slur when first confronting the brothers, Ecuadorean immigrants who were walking down a Brooklyn street early Sunday after a night of drinking. The assailants also used anti-Hispanic insults, city officials said at a news conference.