SAVANNAH, Ga. — An attack on a gay man who witnesses say was knocked unconscious by two U.S. Marines who thought he winked at them has prompted a preliminary investigation into whether the case warrants federal charges as a hate crime.

FBI spokesman Steve Emmett in Atlanta said Monday the agency and federal prosecutors were looking into the weekend attack on 26-year-old Kieran Daly to see if it meets requirements for hate crime charges by the Justice Department. He declined to comment further.

Savannah-Chatham County police found Daly unconscious on a downtown street corner after 3 a.m. Saturday. The two Marines, stopped after an officer saw them running, were arrested on misdemeanor battery charges.

A spokesman for Marine Air Corps Station Beaufort, where the suspects are stationed nearby in South Carolina, said the two Marines have received death threats online from people angered by the case. He urged people not to jump to conclusions.

“There are two sides to every story and right now the only side getting told is the alleged victim’s,” said Gunnery Sgt. Chad McMeen. “People have looked them up on Facebook and they’re now giving them death threats, for what may have been a simple bar fight.”

The Marine base released a statement Monday saying the accused men told military investigators “they were subject to unwanted verbal advances, that they were closely followed, and that a threat was communicated” by Daly or one of his friends.

A police report says Daly and two of his friends were talking and joking with the Marines early Saturday in one of Savannah’s popular nightlife districts.

Alison Brennan, who was with Daly, told police one of the Marines got upset when he found out Daly was gay. She said she heard the man say to Daly: “Did you just wink at me?”

Daly’s friends said he tried to walk away, but they soon found him lying unconscious by the street with one of the Marines standing over him.

The police report says the two Marines told an officer “they were being harassed by a white homosexual male earlier in the evening and just wanted to get away.”

Cpl. Keil Joseph Cronauer, 22, and Lance Cpl. Christopher Charles Stanzel, 23, were charged with attacking Daly.

Both men were released to the custody of military police and returned to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in neighboring South Carolina.

McMeen said the two Marines were being restricted to the base while the case was under investigation. He said the Marines were conducting their own investigation to determine whether to bring charges under military law.

Daly was treated at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah and released. The Associated Press could not find a working phone number for him.

Georgia hasn’t had its own hate crimes law since 2004, when the state Supreme Court struck down a 1999 statute on grounds that it was too vague.

Olympic Training Center resident Dartanyon Crockett (right) has thrived early in his judo career, posting a third-place finish at the Liberty Bell Classic and victories at the Northglenn Judo Championships and the national championships. He trains alongside three players who also are blind in Greg DeWall, Ron Hawthorne and Myles Porter. Photo by ANTHONY SOUFFLE, THE GAZETTE