Town divided

RIFLE -- The night started with a simple invitation.

"Do you want to party?" the boy asked.

"I said, 'Cool, I got nothin' to do,' " said Kyle Skyock.

At the end of that frigid winter night seven months ago, Skyock said four other teens turned on him, beating him unconscious and leaving him face down alongside U.S. 6.

The dark, slightly built 16-year-old said he was attacked because the four boys thought he was gay.

But Rifle police have decided otherwise. They say it was a case of a drunk kid who fell down and injured himself. Police Chief Daryl Meisner said the four teens identified by Skyock as his attackers are not considered suspects.