The Broward Sheriff's Office will not investigate as a hate crime the April beating of a Wilton Manors man who died Wednesday, despite requests from the man's friends and gay activists to consider that possibility.

Instead, detectives say, Craig Cohen, 47, was a victim of chance, fatally injured during a random robbery by men jacked up on alcohol and drugs.

``You don't just throw hate-crime charges on a wall and hope they stick,'' said Cmdr. Rick Wierzbicki, who heads BSO's year-old Hate Crimes Task Force. ``This attack just doesn't fit the criteria for those charges.''

Cohen was attacked April 6 as he walked three blocks to his home from the Peter Pan Diner, near Dixie Highway and Oakland Park Boulevard. The men stomped on his head, shattering his skull and leaving his brain permanently damaged.

``I'm all right,'' he whispered to detectives who arrived at the scene, according to police records. Those were his last words before he slipped into a coma. He never regained consciousness for six months until he died at a Fort Lauderdale hospice.

The two men accused of the attack, Victor Gonzalez, 21, and Pargu Leandro, 25, are charged with attempted murder. They could face murder charges, pending autopsy results from the Broward Medical Examiner's Office.

`THERE WAS HATE INVOLVED'

But friends who cared for Cohen say they think those charges might not be tough enough.

``I think the detectives have done a great job, and I want them to do everything possible under the law to keep these guys behind bars,'' said Hector Varas, 55, who knew Cohen for 30 years. ``But I just can't call this a simple robbery. There was hate involved here.''

``This was too brutal an attack to lead me to think it was done randomly. This was done 100 percent because of his sexuality,'' said Scott Hall, president of Gay American Heroes. The Fort Lauderdale-based organization educates communities on hate crimes.

Hall said an attack against another gay man later that night proves the duo were targeting homosexuals. David Villanova, 27, of Pompano Beach, was robbed and beaten soon after Cohen. He survived.

Gonzalez and Leandro are charged with strong-arm robbery and aggravated battery in that case.

LOOKING FOR VICTIMS

Investigators say Cohen and Villanova were targeted because they were alone, not because they were gay. ``All the suspects wanted was an easy mark, people walking out of the diner by themselves,'' Wierzbicki said.

Though both suspects are from Deerfield Beach, they spent the night at a friend's home near the Oakland Park diner, drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, according to police records. Officials say the men left the house looking for a victim.

Police documents show Villanova's wallet and cellphone were stolen, while Cohen's cellphone and keys were taken. The attackers did not take Cohen's wallet or other property, including a watch.

Under state law, a hate crime is any act against a person or that person's property because of the victim's race, skin color, ethnicity, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, age or disability.

Proving a hate crime is the tricky part, Wierzbicki said.

``There has to be evidence that the person was attacked because of his sexuality.''

According to Wierzbicki, the suspects said they did not know the men they had attacked were gay.