RANCHO PENASQUITOS - San Diego police are investigating a weekend robbery and attack on an anti-illegal immigration advocate in an encampment area of Rancho Penasquitos.

John Monti, 35, of Los Angeles suffered scrapes on his neck, right cheek and the knuckles of both hands during the assault late Saturday morning on Rancho Penasquitos Boulevard under the Highway 76 overpass, Lt. Tom Orden of the Northeastern Division said Monday.

"We took a crime report," Orden said. "It's been assigned to a detective for follow-up."

Monti, who described himself in a phone interview as a Spanish-speaking sixth-grade teacher, said his camera and cell phone were taken during the attack and he recovered them.

Pictures of the alleged assailants from the camera, which was damaged, have been used to make up wanted posters that will be circulated through the area with a police number for people to call, Monti said.

Both Monti and Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen group against illegal immigration, said they think the attack was a hate crime, because Monti is white and the assailants were Latinos.

"When you have a bunch of Latinos who are angry and mad, it's a hate crime," Schwilk said.

Orden said it isn't a hate crime.

"We had somebody filming somebody there, and somebody got upset," the police lieutenant said.

Monti said he has been concerned about encampments, because some have been linked to sexual slavery and he thinks they are "free crime zones."

"I believe in amnesty, but I also believe the borders should be secured," Monti said.

He said he was photographing day laborers being picked up for work Saturday morning at the site when a big Latino man threatened him with a 2-by-4 piece of lumber.

A police officer told the man that Monti could photograph anything he wanted, and the man calmed down, said Monti. He said the officer left.

"As I was putting my camera down, I was attacked from behind," Monti said.

He said his camera, a newer Nikon, was yanked off his neck from behind and thrown into the street. His cell phone was also taken during the assault, he said.

As he went after the Latino man who took his camera and they were struggling on the pavement, Monti said, the man called for help.

"I got hit from behind and I had to leap up to defend myself," he said. "They scattered at that point."

Monti said a witness who stopped and saw what happened told him there were eight Latino men involved.

The police report says there were five or six men, and that Monti said the incident began when he was "bumped from behind," Orden said.

"He said he turned around, and he got in a fight with someone who was right there," the lieutenant said. "Some of the others (Latino men) joined in."

Orden said the pictures Monti took with the camera will be useful in identifying possible assailants.

- Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com.