ST. LOUIS: Attack on Bosnian woman near Bevo Mill is called a hate crime.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson has called in the FBI to help investigate what he is calling a hate crime because a woman assaulted by three black teens is Bosnian.

The Friday morning attack occurred in the Bevo Mill neighborhood where earlier this week a Bosnian man was killed with a hammer by a group of teens.

In Friday’s case, the woman, 26, told police that she was driving in the 4600 block of Lansdowne Avenue about 5:25 a.m. when three men in their late teens to early 20s walked in front of her vehicle.

When the woman attempted to drive around the young men, at least one of them pulled a gun and ordered her to stop.

Note: If someone does this to you, run them down. More:

One of the men asked where the woman was from. She said she was European.

“You’re a (expletive) liar. You’re Bosnian. I should just kill you now,” Dotson said of the woman’s account.

Based on that comment, he said, police are labeling the assault as a hate crime. The woman was pushed to the ground and kicked before the attackers fled. A passer-by told police the woman was found unconscious.

Is there some special anti-Bosnian sentiment among blacks in St. Louis? I know the Bosnian community there is quite large, but is there a history of bad relations?