WILTON MANORS, Fla. -- Nearly 100 people gathered Thursday night in Wilton Manors to celebrate the life of a man who died this week after being attacked and beaten.

There was renewed fervor that what happened to 47-year-old Craig Cohen was not random. Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti said he believed the crime against him may have been a hate crime.

"My philosophy is, you work it as a hate crime until you can you can prove that it's not," Lamberti told Local 10's Janine Stanwood.

On April 6, Cohen, who was gay, was attacked and beaten as he walked home from an Oakland Park diner. Police said his skull was cracked and his cell phone was stolen.

Minutes later and blocks away, another victim, also a gay man, was beaten, as well.

Police later arrested two suspects, Victor Gonzalez and Pargu Leandro, in connection with the attacks.

While the second victim pulled through, Cohen was in a coma for six months and died last week.

Days later, a third suspect was arrested in the beatings: 18-year-old Chad Olah. Because Cohen had died, Olah is being charged with murder. The other two suspects likely will be, as well, Stanwood reported.

The State Attorney's office, not the Broward Sheriff's Office, must determine whether Cohen's killing and the other beating were fueled by hate.

As of Thursday night, the state attorney had not classified what happened to the two men as hate crimes, but Lamberti said he would continue to investigate them as though they were.