PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) – A newspaper delivery driver was stabbed in the neck by a teenager before dawn on May 1 in what police described as a hate crime.

Peter Eugene Daley, 23, was delivering newspapers with his girlfriend on Warm Sands Road about 5:15 a.m. when the teenager began shouting anti-gay remarks and attacked him, Sgt. Mitch Spike said.

“He was in a gay neighborhood,” the sergeant said.

The teenager, who was booked for investigation of attempted murder and hate crime allegations, approached Daley’s vehicle and struck the newspaper carrier in the neck, investigators said. Spike said the youth was drunk.

Daley initially thought he had been punched, but Daley’s girlfriend told him he had been stabbed, police said. Daley was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center, where he was listed in good condition.

Daley’s employer wasn’t known, the sergeant said.