Monday October 12 9:39 AM EDT

Gay Wyoming College Student Dies After Beating

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (Reuters) - A University of Wyoming student savagely beaten in an apparent hate crime because he was gay died early Monday, a Colorado hospital said.

Rulon Stacey, chief executive officer of the Poudre Valley Health System, told reporters Matthew Shepard, 21, died at 12:53 a.m. MDT (2:53 a.m. EDT) Monday. His family was at his bedside.

Shepard had been breathing with the aid of a ventilator since being found last Wednesday night beaten and tied for some 18 hours to a wooden fence where he was left to die just outside Laramie, Wyoming, a small college town.

He suffered a severe skull fracture and was burned in the attack. Police said the college student begged for his life.

Shepard was found by a passing motorist who at first thought that the figure on a fence post was a scarecrow.

He died of his injuries rather than being removed from life support by his parents, Stacey said.

``They did not have to come to a point in the process where they were forced to make a decision. Life support remained with Matthew throughout the process,'' Stacey said.

``In fact they said (as) the caring son that he was, he was able to remove from them the guilt or stress of having to make that decision,'' said the hospital administrator, nearly breaking into tears.

His parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, flew to Colorado from Saudi Arabia where the father works in the oil industry. Stacey said the parents were overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for their son.

Two men are in custody for the attack and their girlfriends, who allegedly provided them an alibi and helped hide bloody clothes, have been charged as accessories after the fact.

Police following the attack lodged attempted first-degree murder charges against the two men and said the charges could be upgraded.

The attack on Shepard, who reportedly lived an openly gay life, was condemned by President Clinton and the governor of Wyoming as well as ordinary citizens who appeared at vigils in honor of the student.

Police believe robbery as well as gay bashing was a motivation in the crime.

Bill McKinney, the father of suspect Aaron McKinney, and Kristen Price, Aaron's girlfriend who was also charged in the case, have said the two men accused of the attack targeted Shepard because he had flirted with Aaron McKinney at a bar and embarrassed him, a published report said Sunday.

The attack in Laramie, Wyoming, a small western town with a popular of 26,000, stunned residents and prompted calls for more anti-hate crime legislation.

The hospital had been flooded with flowers and Rulon said messages from people came from around the world and were in the thousands.