Two City of Vancouver employees have come forward to say they saw 47-year-old Phil Khan getting viciously beaten by three men in downtown Vancouver earlier this week.

The newspaper delivery man was allegedly assaulted by three off-duty police officers early Wednesday morning outside of the Hyatt Hotel in the 600-block of Burrard St.

Meatr Chima and Phil Pilon say the attack was so brutal they actually feared for the victim's life, not to mention their own.

"I wanted to jump in and get the one guy who was doing the punching off of the victim," said Pilon.

"But when they said they were police, I thought it's the last thing I want to do is get involved with this. What if they pull out a Taser and use it on me?"

Khan, who is still wearing bandages on his hands and head, says he has serious injuries to his head and internal injuries after the attack. He has lost a filling and chipped a tooth.

The three officers are from the New Westminster, Delta and West Vancouver police departments. The 38-year-old constable from New Westminster has been suspended, while desk duties have been handed to the other two constables.

Vancouver Police say they're taking the investigation very seriously. The men who saw the whole thing certainly hope so, but fear a different set of rules might be used as police investigate police.

"Justice probably won't be served, I don't think so," said Chima. "If it was a guy like me who did that to that guy there would be justice served, but against those police officers I doubt it."

"I think these police officers should look at themselves in the mirror and think of what they've done. I mean this is ridiculous."

Speaking from his Surrey home on Friday, Khan says he believes the attack was racially motivated.

"I also heard them slurring discrimination remarks that we hate brown people and that if you start moving we also have a Taser we can use on you," he told CTV News.

Khan believes one of the only reasons he's alive is because two city workers stopped to help.

"Thank god there was a lot of city workers that I know that clean the streets in downtown Vancouver," he said.

He fears what would happen if it didn't happen on city streets.

"Just imagine this thing happened on a back lane. I would have been dead and buried."

If you have any information about this story, email us at bcassign@ctv.ca