BOULDER, Colo. — A disabled Vietnam veteran who uses a wheelchair praised Boulder County prosecutors for charging his attacker with a hate crime.

Heriberto Chacon, who goes by the name Xakon Con Passion, was leaving a Chase bank ATM in Lafayette on July 18 when he said he was attacked by a stranger.

“He assaulted me and punched me, he hit me. I can’t tell you how many times,” Chacon said.

Chacon has used a wheelchair for years because of nerve damage he suffered after being exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam.

He said he was flabbergasted when the suspect, 61-year-old Jerry Dawson, started hitting him and calling him “a cripple” as he left the bank with his nurse MaryAnne Bowe.

“If I wouldn’t have seen it and so many other people seen it, I don’t know that people would believe me,” said Bowe, who called the assault unprovoked. “I did hear him say ‘Stand up and fight like a man’ and that’s when a bystander came and said, ‘Sir, sir, can’t you see he`s in a wheelchair?’”

Chacon, who has no use of his legs and extremely limited use of his hands said, “The bigger thing that bothered me is he kept asking me to stand up and fight him like a man. Don’t you think that if I could I would?”

Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett said he charged Dawson with six charges, including a felony hate crime count, because he said Dawson made it clear he was motivated by Chacon’s disability.

“One of the best reasons to use the law is to protect the most vulnerable in our society. Certainly few people are more vulnerable than a Veteran who’s been disabled since the Vietnam War and is in a wheelchair,” Garnett said.

Area veterans have responded to news of the attack with a fundraiser for Chacon on Sunday at the American Legion at 315 S. Bowen St. in Longmont.

The event goes from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and includes a silent auction, a car show and live music. Supporters hope to raise $40,000 to buy Chacon a mobility van.