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The American College Personnel Association Standing Committee for Men has created a content rich web site. This site encourages men and other visitors to stand up to hate in their commuities. Your browser has been directed to this text friendly format.
These Adobe Acrobate files contain infromation about Hate or Bias Crimes. They also provide a guide for us to use as we combat hate in our own lives.
These links feature websites found informative and useful while building safe and supportive communittees.
Seven sites were particularly instramental in inspiring and designing this web page.
The incidents of hate and hate group activities listed below were gathered primarily from media sources and initial police reports by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs and the Human Rights Campaign. This document is not meant to be a comprehensive accounting of all hate-related violence. This site only reports incidents resulting in death or bodily injury -- or those perpetrated with an explosive device or firearm.
Crimes of hate are motivated, in whole or in part, by hatred against a victim based on his or her race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, or disability. The definition of hate crime used here is taken from the Hate Crime Statistics Act. Federal and state laws define hate crime differently and include different protected categories. Hate crimes are also called Biased Crimes.
Released in 2001, the latest FBI statistics show that as overall serious crime has continued to decrease hate crimes have continued to increase and rose 2.3 percent from 1999 to 2000. A separate Justice Department report released in October 2001 confirms that hate crimes are underreported; that a disproportionately high percentage of both victims and perpetrators of hate violence are young people under the age of 25; and that only 20 percent of reported hate crimes result in arrest.
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June 7, 1998, Jasper, Texas
James Byrd Jr. was chained to a pick-up truck and dragged to his death on a
backwoods road in a racially motivated attack.
July 20, 1998, Springfield,
Ill.
Thomas Goacher, 27, was charged with a hate crime, aggravated kidnapping, armed
robbery and aggravated battery for the alleged abduction, torture and robbery
in January of a man whom Goacher presumed to be gay.
July 31, 1998, Falmouth, Maine
Brian McCallum, 39, was charged with terrorizing, violating a protective order
and disorderly conduct for allegedly threatening to kill and behead two lesbian
neighbors.
August 1998, Honolulu
A heterosexual man was killed in a public shower facility by a group of teen-agers
because they thought he was gay.
Aug. 25, 1998, Tremont, Maine
Robert E. Powers Jr. was arrested for allegedly taunting a man with anti-gay
slurs and throwing rocks at him.
Sept. 2, 1998, New York City
Three men allegedly assaulted two men they believed to be gay.
Sept. 14, 1998, Hayward, Calif.
Donald R. Santos, 40, and Lance E. Alves, 45, were charged with making terrorist
threats and interference of civil rights because of sexual orientation for allegedly
threatening a woman and yelling derogatory comments at a gay and lesbian bar.
Sept. 15, 1998, Novato, Calif.
One week after announcing his homosexuality, Adam Colton, 17, was attacked by
three teen-agers who taunted him outside a store. He was also taunted with anti-gay
remarks and incidents at school.
Sept. 19, 1998, Chicago
Three men were allegedly attacked by two men who made anti-gay remarks.
Sept. 23, 1998, Bridgeport,
Pa.
Greg Thorpe, 30, was charged with aggravated and simple assault, recklessly
endangering another person, terrorist threats, harassment, stalking, disorderly
conduct, conspiracy and ethnic intimidation for allegedly making anti-gay threats
and assaulting a lesbian outside a bar in August.
September 1998, Fresno, Calif.
On Sept. 20, the apartment of transgender female Chanel Chandler was set on
fire. Inside authorities discovered Chandler's body. She had been stabbed repeatedly
with a broken beer bottle. According to police, the fire, which did not reach
the room where Chandler's body was found, was likely a failed attempt to hide
the murder. A police spokeswoman said about Chandler's gender identity and expression,
“In a situation like this, that's the first motive you jump on.” In April 1999,
murder charges against Christopher Lopez, 20, and Christopher Chavez, 17, were
dropped after the two spent five months in jail. Fingerprints of one of the
suspects were found on a bag inside Chandler's apartment. KFSN News TV of Fresno
noted that Lopez and Chavez would not waive their right to a speedy trial. Since
necessary evidence, such as DNA test results, was not available yet from the
state crime lab, the district attorney's office dropped the charges rather than
go to trial and risk an acquittal. To date, no charges have been refiled. (The
Fresno Bee, Nov. 9, 1998, Dec. 15, 1998, Dec. 16, 1998, Feb. 6, 1999, April
20, 1999)
Oct. 7, 1998, Traverse City,
Mich.
Jeremy Jamrog, 21, and James Johnson, 24, were charged with aggravated assault
for allegedly attacking a gay man and yelling anti-gay expletives.
Oct. 12, 1998, Laramie, Wyo.
Matthew Shepard, an openly gay 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, was
savagely beaten, tortured, tied to a wooden fence in a remote area and left
to die in freezing temperatures.
Oct. 14, 1998, Orlando, Fla.
Five men allegedly assaulted a gay man and shouted obscenities.
Oct. 15, 1998, Camp Springs,
Md.
Mukesh Patel, 35, Kanu Patel, 28, and Ashvin Patel, 44, were working at a Dunkin’
Donuts store when Trone Tyrone Ashford entered the store, robbed it and assaulted
them with his shotgun. He taunted them about their poor fluency in English before
shooting them at point-blank range as they lay on the floor of the back room.
The gunman, with two other suspects, doused the shop with gasoline and left
the store in flames. They took less than $100. One victim survived after being
rescued by firefighters. (National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium,
1998 Audit)
October 1998, Baltimore
Leonard “Lynn” Vines, 32, a cross-dresser and native of East Baltimore, was
accosted in front of his cousin’s home and shot six times by a group of 10 people
asserting that “we don’t allow no drag queen faggots in this neighborhood.”
Vines survived the attack, which police investigated as a hate crime, and received
an outpouring of support from Maryland residents outraged by the violence. Paul
Bishop, 21, also of Baltimore, was charged with attempted murder. (The Baltimore
Sun, Nov. 8, 1998)
Nov. 6, 1998, Seattle
A gay man was severely beaten with rocks and broken bottles in his neighborhood
by a gang of youths shouting "faggot." The victim sustained a broken nose and
swollen jaw. When he reported the incident to police two days later, the officer
refused to take the report.
Nov. 7, 1998, Easton, Mass.
An Easton teen-ager threw a large rock at a 17-year-old boy he thought was gay,
kicked him in the head and yelled, swore and called the victim a "fag." The
victim suffered a broken nose and a concussion. A week before the assault, the
perpetrator told friends he hated gay people and thought they should be beaten
up.
Nov. 8, 1998, Palm Springs,
Calif.
Raymond Quevedo, 18, and three youths, ages 16 and 17, were charged with assault
with a deadly weapon for an alleged gay bashing during gay pride weekend.
Nov. 17, 1998, Aptos, Calif.
A man allegedly used anti-gay epithets and assaulted a woman at Cabrillo College.
Nov. 18, 1998, El Dorado, Ark.
James Ward, 37, was stabbed to death in his home. Jeremy Legget, 18, who was
charged with the crime, claimed that Ward had made two sexual advances toward
him.
Nov. 23, 1998, Huntley, Ill.
Christopher S. Martin, 22, was sentenced to life in prison for the hate-motivated
murder in 1996 of a gay man.
Dec. 18, 1998, Providence,
Mass.
David E. Sheldon, 19, and Taylor Grenier, 18, were charged with a hate crime
for allegedly assaulting a gay man and yelling anti-gay slurs outside of a bar
in November.
Jan. 3, 1999, Riverside, Calif.
A reported skinhead allegedly used racial epithets against a black man who was
dating a white woman, then shot him.
Jan. 7, 1999, Fall River, Mass.
Lucas Brouillard and Justin Santos, both 18, Adam Dapic, 21, Scott Oliveira,
19, and three juveniles were indicted on charges of assault and battery with
a dangerous weapon and civil rights violations. The group allegedly threw bricks,
rocks and table legs while yelling racial insults at a group of Cambodian-American
children in May.
Jan. 11, 1999, Antigo, Wis.
Gregory S. Howard, 19, was sentenced to 30 days in jail with work release, fined
$500 and placed on one year of probation after entering a plea agreement for
attacking a black man in 1997 and using a racial slur.
Jan. 12, 1999, Parsippany,
N.J.
Ned Norton, 38, was charged with simple assault with bias motivation after he
allegedly provoked an attack by calling his black co-worker a racial epithet.
Jan. 14, 1999, Little Rock,
Ark.
Yitzak Abba Marta was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 1996
beating and strangulation of a transvestite.
Jan. 14, 1999, San Diego
Five white men, Robert Rio, 23, Steven Lawrence Newark III and Trenton J. Solis,
both 18, and Jed A. Jones and Jessie B. Lawson, both 21, pleaded guilty to assault
for beating and paralyzing a black Marine in May. Lawson also pleaded guilty
to committing a hate crime. In February, Lawson was sentenced to nine years
in prison. The other men were sentenced to one year in prison and placed on
five years of probation.
Jan. 14, 1999, El Dorado, Calif.
Thomas Gary, 38, died after being run over by a truck and shot with a shotgun.
The assailant claimed that Gary had made a pass at him.
Jan. 17, 1999, Texas City,
Texas
Two black gay men, Laaron Morris and Kevin Tryals, were shot to death and one
of the men was left inside a burning car.
Jan. 18, 1999, Port Charlotte,
Fla.
Billy Gene Todd, 42, was charged with battery and a hate crime after he allegedly
assaulted a black man and called him a racial epithet.
Jan. 18, 1999, Hatfield, Pa.
Two white males and a white female allegedly assaulted two men of Indian descent
and shouted racial slurs.
Jan. 18, 1999, San Francisco
A carload of men allegedly threw a bottle at and taunted two gay men.
Jan. 18, 1999, San Diego
Duane Tebbe, 19, was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $1,000 for
assault with a deadly weapon and commission of a hate crime for the August stabbing
of an American-Indian-Hispanic man Tebbe mistakenly thought to be black.
Jan. 20, 1999, Alfred, Maine
Frank L. Breton, 47, was convicted of hate crime assault for assaulting his
neighbor in March because he believed the man was gay.
Jan. 20, 1999, Pontiac, Mich.
Two white high school students and two black high school students were suspended
after a fight that occurred because the two white students allegedly used racial
slurs.
Jan. 21, 1999, Washington,
D.C.
William Alvarenga, 30, was charged with a hate crime and assault with a dangerous
weapon for allegedly hitting a black man with a nightstick and refusing to serve
him at a restaurant in October.
Jan. 21, 1999, Anaheim, Calif.
Reported skinheads Dwayne E. Merchant, 23, and Mike J. Merrifield, 19, were
charged with assault with a deadly weapon, possession of dangerous weapons and
violation of civil rights with the use of force after allegedly assaulting a
Vietnamese man.
Jan. 22, 1999, Bourbon, Mo.
A federal jury deadlocked on a verdict for John Bewig, 50, who was charged with
racially motivated assault for allegedly threatening and assaulting a black
woman in May 1996.
Jan. 25, 1999, Taunton, Mass.
Derek Glacken, 27, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life
without the possibility of parole for the fatal 1996 stabbing of a man whom
he believed to be gay.
Jan. 26, 1999, Winston-Salem,
N.C.
A black man, Michael L. Hatcher, 20, was convicted of robbery with a dangerous
weapon for the racially motivated robbery of two Hispanic men a year earlier.
He was given back-to-back sentences of nine to 11 years and seven months in
prison.
Jan. 27, 1999, Glendale, Calif.
Dominic Delmastro, 28, and Dennie G. Martinez, 19, pleaded guilty to assault
and interfering with a person’s civil rights for throwing rocks and shouting
racist slurs at two Latinos and an Armenian youth. John Carbert, 20, David Chapman,
19, and Anthony Ingles and Allan Dupras, both 18, pleaded guilty to civil rights
violations in connection with the incident.
Jan. 28, 1999, New Springville,
N.Y.
A 13-year-old was charged with assault for allegedly participating in the bias
assault of a 14-year-old Hispanic youth outside a school.
Jan. 29, 1999, Bethel Park,
Pa.
A white man, Mark D. Maloney, 38, was charged with aggravated assault, terroristic
threats, ethnic intimidation and harassment after he allegedly threatened three
white youths and two black youths with racial slurs and hit one youth with a
brick.
Jan. 29, 1999, Independence,
Va.
Emmett Cressell Jr., 38, was sentenced to life in prison and fined $100,000
for his role in the 1997 death of a black man who was beheaded and burned.
February 1999, Yosemite National
Park, Ca.
An individual charged with the murder of four women in Yosemite National Park
-- one of which was a 16-year-old girl -- told police investigators that he
had fantasized about killing women for three decades.
February 1999, Toledo, Ohio
Three white men, Daniel Daly, 21, Dustin Henninger, 18, and Charles Barnhouse,
23, were charged with felonious assault for allegedly stomping a white man.
Two of the accused claim to be skinheads.
February 1999, Spokane, Wash.
A white man, Johnny L. Jennings, 32, pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced
to one year in jail with all but five days suspended and ordered to perform
40 hours of community service for making racially motivated threats to a black
man in March.
February 1999, Houston
Steve Dwayne Garcia died of a gunshot wound to the shoulder in a murder police
described as a possible hate crime. At the time of his death, the victim was
going home from a party wearing women’s clothing and shoulder length hair. Because
none of his jewelry was taken, investigators suspected he was targeted because
of the way he was dressed. (The Houston Chronicle, Feb. 7, 1999)
Feb. 2, 1999, Philadelphia
Steve Grimscheid, 20, and Craig Grookett, 20, were convicted of aggravated assault
for attacking a gay psychiatrist.
Feb. 2, 1999, Salem, Ore.
Joshua L. Bandfield and alleged skinhead James B. Cale, both 21, Ivan R. Pawl,
19, and Justin M. Hunt were charged with intimidation for allegedly assaulting
a security guard because he is black. Hunt is also charged with assault and
violation of probation.
Feb. 2, 1999, Pulaski, Wis.
Darrell Hylok, 40, Bruce Hylok, 29, and Troy Best, 21, pleaded guilty to battery
for kicking and beating a black man while yelling racial slurs.
Feb. 3, 1999, Edwardsville,
Ill.
A black man, Taiwan Davis, 17, was convicted of first-degree murder for his
participation in the mob-style beating death in August of a white man who had
allegedly used racial slurs prior to his death.
Feb. 4, 1999, Westhampton,
N.Y.
Austin Offen, a 28-year-old white man, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for
the 1996 racially motivated beating of a black man outside a nightclub.
Feb. 4, 1999, Spokane, Wash.
Reported skinhead Angelo A. Perry, 18, was charged with assault for allegedly
beating a white man in January. John Perry is also being sought in connection
with the incident. Both men reportedly have ties to the Aryan Nations.
Feb. 5, 1999, Houston,
A white librarian allegedly dragged an elementary student across a floor while
using a racial slur.
Feb. 7, 1999, Miami
Three young women stalked, beat and stabbed a gay man while yelling anti-gay
epithets.
Feb. 10, 1999, San Francisco
A group of white men allegedly beat a black youth after a basketball game while
yelling racial epithets.
Feb. 11, 1999, Tillamook, Ore.
James Ash, 48, and Kevin Hawthorn, 25, were charged with intimidation and assault
for allegedly beating a man because of his sexual orientation.
Feb. 13, 1999, Pawtucket, R.I.
Joseph A. Risho, 45, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly
hitting a man with a bottle while yelling anti-gay slurs.
Feb. 16, 1999, Houston
Roderick Brenneman, 59, was convicted of assault and sentenced to a year in
jail for partially blinding a man in October because he believed the man to
be gay.
Feb. 17, 1999, Novato, Calif.
A 17-year-old gay male student, Adam Colton, was ambushed and severely beaten.
The letters “F-A-G” had been scratched into his stomach and arms. Colton had
been beaten the previous September in an anti-gay incident.
Feb. 19, 1999, Sylacauga, Ala.
Billy Jack Gaither, a gay man, was abducted, beaten to death with an ax handle
and set afire on burning tires in a remote area.
Feb. 23, 1999, Antioch, Calif.
A 15-year-old was charged with assault and battery, and committing a hate crime
for allegedly assaulting another teen and calling him anti-gay slurs.
Feb. 24, 1999, Saline, Mich.
Three white high school students, Andrew Maddock and Matthew Lathrop, both 18,
and another student, were charged with ethnic intimidation in connection with
a December hallway fight with two black students.
Feb. 24, 1999, Fort Lauderdale,
Fla.
Jody-Gaye Bailey, a black woman, died after being shot in the head by a self-proclaimed
skinhead. Minutes before the shooting the perpetrator reportedly boasted of
wanting to "go out and kill a nigger." Bailey and her boyfriend, who is Caucasian,
were stopped at a red light when the perpetrator fired at Bailey seven times.
Her boyfriend was uninjured.
Feb. 25, 1999, Hackensack,
N.J.
Allen Scott, 20, and Leshawn Jones, 25, were convicted of aggravated assault
and riot and Latson Cockfield, 27, and Henser Harmon, 26, were convicted of
simple assault and riot for the 1997 racially charged beating of a Chinese restaurant
owner.
March 1999, Decatur, Ill.
A university student was allegedly beaten by three men who made anti-gay remarks.
March 1999, Hollywood, Fla.
Elias Rosado, 34, and Luis Rosado, 29, were charged with aggravated assault
and a hate crime for allegedly attacking a black bicyclist while shouting racial
slurs.
March 1, 1999, Richmond, Va.
A gay, homeless man was killed and his severed head was left atop a footbridge
in James River Park near a popular meeting place for gay men.
March 2, 1999, Chicago
Michael Raimondi, 39, pleaded guilty to a hate crime and was sentenced to 60
days in jail and two years of probation for attacking a Pakistani man at a gas
station in the summer of 1998.
March 3, 1999, Gurnee, Ill.
Eric Hanson, 24, was charged with assault and a hate crime for allegedly making
racist threats to an interracial couple outside a grocery store.
March 3, 1999, Columbia, S.C.
Clayton Spires Jr., 28, former member of the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux
Klan, was sentenced to 26 years in prison for his role in a nightclub shooting
that wounded three black teens in 1996.
March 10, 1999, San Francisco
Robert Ramirez, 20, Michael Hurley, 19, and a 16-year-old were charged with
assault for an alleged hate crime attack on a black youth in February.
March 12, 1999, Los Angeles
Juan Chavez, 35, pleaded guilty to murder for the strangulation killings of
five gay men in 1986 and 1989.
March 13, 1999, Plant City
, Fla.
Kevin C. Smith, 24, was charged with battery of a law enforcement officer, resisting
arrest and disorderly conduct for allegedly assaulting a police officer at a
hotel following a gathering of skinheads and neo-Nazis. Coby Stonecypher was
charged with assault for allegedly threatening a black man in connection with
the gathering.
March 15, 1999, Denver
Skinhead Jeremiah Barnum, 25, was convicted of murder and attempted murder and
sentenced to life in prison for the 1997 shooting death of a West-African immigrant
at a bus stop and the wounding of a bystander.
March 15, 1999, Darien, Conn.
A white man, Kevin Keady, was convicted of intimidation by bigotry or bias and
second-degree assault and placed on two years of special probation for a 1996
racially motivated attack on a black man.
March 15, 1999, Traverse City,
Mich.
Jeremy Jamrog was convicted of assault and battery for assaulting a gay man
in October. James Johnson pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace in connection
with the incident.
March 17, 1999, Temecula, Calif.
Reported white supremacist Travis Miskam, 20, was charged with assault with
a deadly weapon for allegedly assaulting a black man at a party.
March 18, 1999, Alfred, Maine
Bryan E. Worthley, 25, pleaded guilty to burglary, assault and a bail violation,
and was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his participation in a racially
motivated attack on an Asian family in August.
March 19, 1999, San Francisco
Ban Dol Im, 21, Henry Sai Hung Kwong, 19, and Thang Cao Truong, 18, were charged
with suspicion of aggravated assault with a hate-crime enhancement after they
allegedly yelled anti-gay epithets and assaulted a man.
March 20, 1999, Woodside, N.Y.
Samantha Mansfield, 20, and Carmella Mansfield, 26, were charged with assault
and aggravated harassment after they allegedly attacked an Asian youth and yelled
racial insults.
March 22, 1999, Pontiac, Mich.
Glen A. Ethington, 45, was convicted of ethnic intimidation, assault and using
a firearm in the commission of a felony for threatening a man with a shotgun
and saying a racial epithet in 1998.
April 3, 1999, St. Petersburg,
Fla.
Ashley Mance, a 6-year-old black youth, was killed by one of 12 rounds fired
from a Chinese semiautomatic rifle. Self-proclaimed skinhead Jessy J. Roten,
17, was charged with first-degree premeditated murder and attempted murder for
firing the shots that pierced the interracial family’s home. George G. Harvell,
19, was charged with selling the combat weapon to a minor.
April 5, 1999, Crystal Lake,
Ill.
Naoki Kamijima, 48, was a Japanese-American shop owner shot to death in this
city outside of Chicago. The gunman was allegedly searching stores for employees
of certain ethnicities before finding and shooting Kamijima. Reportedly, the
gunman said to the employees he left behind after questioning them on their
ethnic background, "this is your lucky day." Hours later, Kamijima was shot
dead, leaving a wife and two teen-age children. A Korean neighbor of the perpetrator
said that he used to chase her car when she drove through his neighborhood shaking
his fist at her. He has been charged with murder and committing a hate crime
in the slaying.
April 10, 1999, Winston-Salem,
N.C.
Three white men were arrested after they allegedly attacked a black man and
yelled racial slurs. Robert E. Cook, 21, was charged with assault and malicious
injury to property; Randy Dillon, 23, with failure to heed blue lights and siren,
speeding, and careless and reckless driving; and Jason Wilson, 26, with disorderly
conduct.
April 13, 1999, Gurnee, Ill.
Eric D. Hanson, 24, was convicted of assault and disorderly conduct for committing
a hate crime when he threatened a biracial couple outside a grocery store in
February. In May, he was sentenced to one year in prison.
April 13, 1999, San Francisco
Reported skinheads allegedly kidnapped a black man and etched a swastika into
his chest with a piece of glass.
April 14, 1999, Costa Mesa,
Calif.
Russell Wood Jr., 40, was arrested after he allegedly shouted racial epithets
at two black men at a bar and charged at them with a knife. Wood faces charges
of attempted murder, assault on a police officer and committing a hate crime.
April 15, 1999, Carbondale,
Ill.
Corey R. Cummings, 20, and Garland D. Fulford, 23, were charged with a hate
crime, aggravated battery and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon for allegedly
attacking three university students with baseball bats.
April 16, 1999, Paterson, N.J.
Sherman Wright, 20, and Gary Winfrey, 22, were placed on five years of probation
for their participation in a 1997 racially motivated assault of a Chinese man.
April 18, 1999, Ephrata, Pa.
Two white men allegedly assaulted a black man and yelled racial epithets.
April 24, 1999, Winston-Salem,
N.C.
Earl R. Cook, 21, was charged with assault for the purpose of ethnic intimidation
and injury to real property for allegedly assaulting a black man and damaging
his car because of the man’s race.
April 26, 1999, Philadelphia
Clarence R. LaRue, 34, pleaded guilty to rape, ethnic intimidation and aggravated
assault for stalking, beating, raping and making racist remarks to an Asian
woman in July.
May 1999, Alpine, Calif.
Ralph H. Dixon, 18, and three juveniles were convicted of violent hate crimes
in connection with a racially motivated assault on a Hispanic man in March.
May 1999, Kenosha, Wis.
A 27-year-old man intentionally swerved his car onto a sidewalk to run over
two African-American teens on bicycles. After hitting the two cyclists, he left
the scene and kept driving until stopped by police. Eight years earlier, the
same man rammed his car twice into a stopped van carrying five African-American
men and drove away.
May 3, 1999, San Dimas, Calif.
Two youths, ages 13 and 14, were charged with suspicion of assault with a deadly
weapon, interference with the exercise of civil rights, drinking alcohol in
a public place, public intoxication and suspicion of manufacturing an explosive
device after the pair allegedly manufactured a pipe bomb and composed a death
list that contained racial slurs and the names of 41 teachers and students.
May 4, 1999, Youngstown, Ohio
Self-proclaimed members of the Aryan Nations and Klansmen Kirk L. Agee, 22,
and Garrett Agee, 26, were charged with assaulting a police officer, inciting
violence, obstructing official business, criminal damage and resisting arrest
after they and three others allegedly were involved in a fight in which they
directed racial slurs and threats toward black customers at a store. Sheila
Agee-Leonard, 29, was charged with assaulting a police officer, inciting violence
and obstructing official business; Melissa Klemm, 23, was charged with criminal
damage and assaulting a police officer; and George H. Limberty, 23, was charged
with obstructing official business.
May 5, 1999, Chicago
Herberto A. Pulgar, 28, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for a racially motivated
attack in 1997 when he intentionally ran over a black man with his utility vehicle
after spitting on him and hurling racial insults.
May 6, 1999, Santa Clarita,
Calif.
Osvaldo Renteria, 26, and Manuel Villasenor, 32, were charged with suspicion
of committing a hate crime after they allegedly burglarized a residence and
beat three gay men.
May 10, 1999, Sun Valley, Calif.
Rick L. McConnell, 37, was charged with a hate crime and interfering with federally
protected activities for allegedly yelling racial slurs and turning his Rottweiler
dog on a black man at a service station in March.
May 12, 1999, Bloomington,
Ill.
Hector Alvarez, 24, was convicted of aggravated battery and mob action for participating
in the beating of a black Illinois State University student in October. He was
acquitted of a hate crime.
May 13, 1999, Littleton, Texas
Jack M. Modig, 39, was charged with ethnic intimidation, attempted vehicular
assault and possession of explosives after he allegedly tried to torch a mosque.
May 14, 1999, Novato, Calif.
A white man allegedly yelled racial epithets at a black youth and tried to run
the youth down with his truck.
May 15, 1999, Harrison, Ohio
Travis Hearn, a 28-year-old white man, was charged with ethnic intimidation
after he allegedly made insulting comments to a black man and spit in his face
after a confrontation at a softball game.
May 18, 1999, Portland, Maine
Joseph Fontaine, 39, was charged with reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon
after he allegedly used racial epithets and threw bricks at a biracial family.
May 20, 1999, Baton Rouge,
La.
Reported Klansman Greg David, 22, was charged with aggravated rape, oral sexual
battery and crime against nature for allegedly raping a black man in 1997.
May 20, 1999, Mt. Prospect,
Ill.
Walter Kryvenko, 40, was charged with battery and resisting arrest after he
allegedly made anti-Semitic statements and gave the Nazi salute to motorists.
May 23, 1999, Van Nuys, Calif.
Twin brothers Kelly B. Cook and Kris J. Cook, 39, were charged with assault
with a deadly weapon and making terrorist threats after they allegedly made
racist remarks and threatened a man with a knife.
May 24, 1999, Fall River, Ill.
Four black men, Damien Gouse, 20, Terry Lewis, 17, William Wheeler, 22, and
John Baker, 19, were charged with attempted murder and civil rights violations
for allegedly shooting a white teen-ager.
May 25, 1999 Anaheim, Calif.
Two youths, ages 13 and 14, were charged with conspiracy to construct an explosive
device, possession of an explosive device, possession of materials to construct
an explosive device and possession of a destructive device on school grounds
for allegedly stockpiling a small arsenal at school. The 13-year-old allegedly
had Nazi paraphernalia, handcrafted swastikas and white supremacist literature
in his room at home.
June 2, 1999, West Palm Beach,
Fla.
Two teen-agers admitted that they beat a gay man, Steven Goedereis, to death
on April 27, 1998, because he called one of them "beautiful."
June 4, 1999, Fort Dodge, Iowa
Rick R. Yetmar, 21, was charged with assault and violation of individual rights
in connection with a racially motivated beating in May.
June 6, 1999, Greenfield, Mass.
Two prep-school students, ages 18 and 20, were charged with a hate crime after
allegedly using a knife to carve an anti-gay slur into another student’s back
at Northfield Mount Hermon High School because he liked to listen to the British
rock band Queen, whom they referred to as a "gay band." The wounds from the
letters were 4 to 5 inches high and deep enough to draw blood.
June 7, 1999, Los Angeles
Nazi Low Rider member Eric Dillard, 18, was sentenced to three years in federal
prison for hate crime attacks against two African Americans in 1996.
June 16, 1999, San Dimas, Calif.
Gary Lyster, 13, was convicted of attacking two classmates with a knife in a
park and preparing a racially motivated hit list. Ben Dipple, 14, pleaded no
contest to a hate crime in connection with the incident and possessing a pipe
bomb.
June 18, 1999, Sacramento,
Calif.
A black man, Jabori Jones, was fatally shot in the back with a 12-gauge shotgun
in a park in August. Two white men, Kenneth Charles Nemetz, 21, and Stephen
Michael Grierson, 20, were charged with civil rights violations and murder for
allegedly killing Jones because of his race.
June 23, 1999, Columbia, S.C.
Two former members of the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were sentenced
for shooting three black people outside a nightclub in 1996. Joshua England,
21, and Clayton Spires, 28, were given three consecutive 20-year sentences.
June/July 1999, Northern California
Three synagogues in the Sacramento, Calif., area were destroyed by arson. Two
brothers, who have links to an organized hate group, are suspects in the arson
as well as the shotgun murders of two gay men, Winfield Scott Mowder and Gary
Matson, in Redding, Calif. On Nov. 6, 1999, The Associated Press reported that
one of the suspects in the Redding murders, Benjamin Matthew Williams, told
a newspaper that he killed the gay men “because he believed their homosexuality
violated God's laws.” The Associated Press reported, “He said he hoped his violence
would incite more killings. ‘I’m not guilty of murder,’ Williams said. ‘I’m
guilty of obeying the laws of the Creator,’ which he said holds that homosexuality
must be punished by death. ‘You obey a government of man until there is a conflict,’
he said. ‘Then you obey a higher law. So many people claim to be Christians
and complain about all these things their religion says are a sin, but they’re
not willing to do anything about it. They don’t have the guts.’”
July 3, 1999, Philadelphia
A 59-year-old gay man was found beaten to death in his apartment. The bodies
of two other gay men from the Philadelphia area were found in the Schuylkill
River in early June. Police are unsure if the first two deaths were the result
of hate violence.
July Fourth Weekend, 1999,
Illinois/Indiana
An individual associated with a racist and anti-Semitic organization, Benjamin
Smith, killed an African-American man, Ricky Byrdsong, and wounded six Orthodox
Jews in Chicago before killing a Korean student, Won-Joon Yoon, in Bloomington,
Ind.
July 7, 1999, Jacksonville,
Ill.
Brent Hayes, 41, was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $400 after pleading
guilty to a hate crime and driving under the influence for yelling racial slurs
and attempting to run down a black man with a truck in April.
July 13, 1999, Portland, Maine
Self-proclaimed Klansman Rocky Libby, 35, pleaded guilty to attempted murder
and was sentenced to three years in prison and four years of probation for a
racially motivated attack on a black police officer in September.
July 18, 1999, West Hollywood,
Calif.
Two transgender women were attacked by three men who beat them with aluminum
baseball bats while yelling anti-gay epithets. One of the victims required hospitalization
for a head injury.
July 21, 1999, Waupaca, Wis.
Robert E. Welsh, 18, and Frederick J. Powell, 18, were charged with a hate crime
for allegedly chasing down a black family with their car, yelling racial slurs
and throwing bottles at the family.
July 24, 1999, San Diego, Calif.
Hundreds of people were tear gassed as a military style tear-gas canister was
released near the Family Matters contingent at the San Diego gay pride parade.
The 70-person contingent included small children and babies in strollers.
July 28, 1999, Fort Lauderdale,
Fla.
World Church of the Creator member Jules Fettu, 26, was convicted of battery
as a hate crime for the racially motivated beating of a Cuban-American.
July 29, 1999, Powell County,
Mont.
Douglas Zander allegedly gunned down David Solomon in front of his wife and
4-year-old son at a rest stop near Gold Creek. After being arrested, Zander
told police he killed Solomon because Solomon was black. The Missoulan reported
that Zander told investigators his girlfriend left him for a black man. Zander,
who has admitted that he is mentally ill, entered a plea of “no contest” in
April 2000 and has been sentenced to 60 years in a state hospital at Warm Springs.
His plea did not admit to bias as a factor in the slaying. (Montana Human Rights
Network Newsletter, May 2000, Missoulian.com, August 25, 2000.)
July 30, 1999, Poway, Calif.
Christine A. Wilfong, 22, was charged with suspicion of making a terrorist threat
and battery against a motorist for allegedly yelling a racial epithet at a black
woman and assaulting her. White supremacist literature was allegedly found in
Wilfong’s home when she was arrested.
July 30, 1999, Miami
Two World Church of the Creator members were sentenced for their roles in the
severe, hate-motivated beating of a man and his son at a 1997 rock concert in
Sunrise. Ray Leone, 18, was sentenced to eight years in prison and Guy Lombardi,
35, was sentenced to one year of house arrest and placed on four years of probation.
Aug. 9, 1999, Bessemer City,
N.C.
Donovan Shane Greene, 23, was charged with ethnic intimidation, damaging property,
and assault and battery in connection with alleged attacks on blacks and Hispanics
in his neighborhood.
Aug. 10, 1999, New Bedford,
Mass.
Adam Dapic, 21, was sentenced to three years in prison, and Scott Oliveira,
19, was sentenced to two years in jail for a May 1998 racially motivated attack
on a group of Cambodian youths.
Aug. 10, 1999, Los Angeles
Lim Shu Huang, 25, and Lim Kyi Huang, 23, were each charged with a hate crime
after they allegedly attacked a black man and vandalized his car.
Aug. 10, 1999, Los Angeles
A former security guard for a white supremacist organization, Buford O. Furrow,
wounded five people, including young children, at a Los Angeles Jewish community
center, and later killed a Filipino-American postal worker, Joseph Ileto.
Aug. 13, 1999, Portland, Maine
A white youth allegedly yelled racial slurs and assaulted a Somalian woman in
June. A permanent restraining order was sought against the teen.
Aug. 17, 1999, Riverside, Calif.
Four members of Western Hammerskins -- Travis George Miskam and Daniel Glen
Butler, both 20, and Alan Thomas Yantis and Gregory Allan McDaniel, both 19
-- were charged with attempted murder. The group allegedly taunted a black man
with racial slurs, struck him on the head with a bottle and slashed him with
a knife in March.
Aug. 27, 1999, Lexington, Ky.
For days after being held down, beaten, choked and called racial slurs, TerAndre
Graham and Jesse Davis said they ached from bruises and scars. Davis also had
broken bones. Graham, who is black, and Davis, who is white, said they were
jumped by about 10 white men on the front porch of an acquaintance’s porch because
of Graham’s race. At once point, Graham, 25, said he was knocked to the ground
and choked by a man who used racial slurs and told him he was going to kill
him. Two men, Charles J. Truelove, 25, and Scott R. Jacobs, 21, were arrested
and faced one count each of fourth-degree assault in an attack police labeled
a hate crime. (The Associated Press, Sept. 29, 1999.)
Aug. 30, 1999, San Jose, Calif.
Two 17-year-olds and a 19-year-old were charged with committing a hate crime,
terrorism and arson after they allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail into the home
of a judge whom they mistakenly believed to be Jewish.
Aug. 31, 1999, Victorville,
Calif.
Ivan Larrabee, 17, and Ronald Strauss II, 18, pleaded guilty to assault by means
likely to cause great bodily injury with a hate-crime enhancement for the racially
motivated assault of a black man in 1998.
August 1999, Passaic, N.J.
Kareem Washington, a gay man who sometimes dressed in women’s clothing, was
stabbed multiple times and left to die in an industrial area in Passaic, N.J.
Police were unsure of the motive for the murder; however, the victim’s wallet,
with cash and identification intact, was found on his body. The victim was wearing
a skirt, high-heeled shoes and stockings. (The Record [Bergen County, N.J.],
Aug. 30, 31, 1999)
Sept. 1, 1999, Wichita, Kan.
Three men were sentenced for hate crime convictions resulting from a 1994 attack
on a black man in a bar. John Edwards, 28, was sentenced to 18 months in federal
prison without parole, followed by three years of supervised release. Kevin
Phillips, 25, was placed on three years of probation, six months of home detention
and fined $5,000, and John Klein, 31, was placed on two years of probation.
Sept. 1, 1999, Yaphank, N.Y.
Three white people were arrested after they allegedly attacked a black man and
his two white friends after the group entered a bar filled with white patrons.
Joseph Leocata, 26, and his brother Nicholas Leocata, 22, were charged with
breaking and entering, aggravated harassment, assault and riot. Bobby Jo White,
26, was charged with riot and aggravated harassment.
Sept. 2, 1999, Merced, Calif.
Jeffrey A. Rogers, 23, was charged with assault for allegedly knocking an elderly
black man to the ground and making racist comments.
Sept. 2, 1999, Reading, Pa.
Travis Orth, 18, was charged with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and
possessing instruments of crime for allegedly firing a BB gun at two Hispanic
women while waving a swastika armband.
Sept. 3, 1999, Tulsa, Okla.
Mark Warren, 24, pleaded guilty to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon
for the racially motivated attack of a black man in July 1998. Warren was sentenced
to eight years in prison.
Sept. 10, 1999, Los Angeles
Rick L. McConnell, 37, pleaded guilty to civil rights violations for shouting
racial epithets at a black man and sicking his Rottweiler on the man at a gas
station in March.
Sept. 13, 1999, Winslow, Pa.
Anthony D. LaVala, 29, and Gerald R. Willis, 19, pleaded guilty to ethnic intimidation
and making terroristic threats for assaulting a black man and shouting racial
epithets at the man and his two children in April.
Sept. 14, 1999, Santa Cruz,
Calif.
Jamie Tyner, Justis Earle and William Mehlenbacher, all 18, and a 17-year-old
girl were charged with assault for allegedly attacking two Latinos and yelling
racial epithets.
Sept. 15, 1999, Fort Worth,
Texas
Larry Ashbrook, fully armed with two guns, ammunition and a pipe bomb, burst
into a youth service at the Wedgwood Baptist Church and shot 14 people, killing
seven, including several youths. According to witnesses, Ashbrook was shouting
anti-religious epithets and said, "I can’t believe you believe this junk," as
he opened fire on the congregation. Reports indicate that Ashbrook had boasted
in 1996 of belonging to a hate group called the Phineas Priests that advocates
killing Jewish people.
Sept. 17, 1999 Redondo Beach,
Calif.
Two Latino men, John Mailander, 34, and Michael Nunez, 18, were charged with
suspicion of making terrorist threats, committing a hate crime and assault with
a deadly weapon.
Sept. 17, 1999, Grand Rapids,
Mich.
Charles Raab, a 30-year-old white man, was charged with ethnic intimidation
and assault with the intent to commit murder for allegedly beating a black man,
running over him with his car and dragging him 50 feet.
Sept. 19, 1999, Providence,
R.I.
A group of men shouting anti-homosexual slurs allegedly assaulted five gay men.
Sept. 20, 1999, Santa Rosa,
Calif.
Four youths allegedly fired shots from a pellet gun toward a woman whose car
had diversity and rainbow stickers on it. The youths also allegedly yelled derogatory
comments regarding the woman’s sexual orientation.
Sept. 23, 1999, San Jose, Calif.
Victor Q. Podbreger, 19, was charged with arson, possession of a destructive
device and hate crime enhancements for allegedly firebombing a Roman Catholic
judge’s home in August.
Sept. 26, 1999, Van Nuys, Calif.
Two reputed skinheads, Shaun L. Broderick, 20, and Christopher Crawford, 26,
pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon for attacking a black store
employee in March. They were each sentenced to eight years in prison.
Sept. 28, 1999, Charleston,
Ill.
William J. Riley, 27, was charged with a hate crime for allegedly yelling racial
epithets at a woman and kicking her in the neck.
Sept. 29, 1999, Ukiah, Calif.
A 17-year-old was charged with allegedly attacking a black teen-ager while shouting
racial slurs in two separate incidents.
Oct. 8, 1999 , San Luis Obispo,
Calif.
Dustin Ashford, 20, was sentenced to one year in prison for attacking a black
man.
Oct. 21, 1999, Boston
Michael Day and Sean Beatty, both 19, pleaded guilty to assault and battery,
civil rights violations and destruction of property in a 1997 attack on their
Hispanic neighbors.
Oct. 29, 1999, Tallahassee,
Fla.
Lawrence M. Lombardi, 41, pleaded not guilty to charges that he carried an explosive
device and placed two bombs on the campus of Florida A&M, a historically black
college.
Oct. 29, 1999, Indianapolis
A trio of men – of which an 18-year-old has been apprehended and charged – while
allegedly committing a series of home invasion robberies, broke into the apartment
of two men. Convinced that the men were homosexuals, the perpetrators forced
the men to strip naked under gunpoint, tied them together and tortured them
with a hot iron. Both victims were burned repeatedly and were kicked, beaten
with a small baseball bat and other household items and taunted with homophobic
remarks during the attack, which lasted more than 30 minutes. One of the victims
was forced to drink a mixture of bleach and urine. The robbers also tried to
burn the building down on their way out but later inexplicably returned, put
out the fire and gave some water to the man they made drink the bleach mixture.
The robbers’ total take was $6.
Oct. 31, 1999, At sea off the
California coast
A 37-year-old gay man was the target of a brutal anti-gay attack on board a
cruise ship. The victim was assaulted by two other passengers in a hallway of
the ship, who called him a "fucking faggot" several times. He sustained injuries
including a broken nose, three skull fractures around his eyes, chipped teeth
and multiple contusions. Because the attack happened at sea, beyond the reach
of state and local laws, police have been unable to pursue the case as a bias-related
incident, referring it instead to the federal government.
Oct. 31, 1999, Iverness, Fla.
After shouting anti-gay epithets, a teen-ager allegedly drove into a group of
young people dressed in drag on Halloween night, killing 17-year-old Allison
Decratel and injuring another person. The teen-ager, Richard Burzynski Jr.,
17, and passenger Thomas Alan Bonneville, 16, drove past the cross-dressed group
several times shouting "faggots" at the boys in the group before steering the
car into the group of teens. The perpetrators fled the scene but were apprehended
50 miles north of the incident. On November 19, Burzynski was indicted on six
counts, including first-degree murder. (St. Petersberg Times, Oct. 29, 2000;
Citrus Times, Nov. 2, 1999.)
Nov. 4, 1999, Lancaster, Calif.
Randall Rojas, 24, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 1995 racially
motivated beating death of a black man.
Nov. 5, 1999, Corvallis, Ore.
Roderick Kennedy, 38, was charged with aggravated murder for allegedly beating
a Hispanic man to death.
Nov. 5, 1999, Center City,
Pa.
John Thomas, 60, was charged with killing a gay man in October.
Nov. 7, 1999, Lawrence, Kan.
Two heterosexual men, one a student at Kansas University, were walking down
the street when some men called them anti-gay epithets. After responding to
the remarks, the two were attacked by five men. One of the victims was knocked
backward on a concrete planter and held down while two attackers struck his
face with their fists. The other ran to call the police. This was the third
such incident in as many months. One of the victims said that the police initially
told him they could not arrest the perpetrators because, "it was their word
against ours."
Nov. 9, 1999, Philadelphia
Joe Larose, 35, was convicted of three counts of ethnic intimidation, simple
assault and possession of instrument of a crime for slipping a noose around
a black co-worker’s neck.
Nov. 11, 1999, Waukesha , Wis.
Christopher J. Wallace, 18, was charged with allegedly assaulting a Korean-American
teen and taunting him with racial slurs.
Nov. 17, 1999, Orange City,
Fla.
A group of white men allegedly shouted racial slurs and attacked a black couple.
Nov. 21, 1999, Maple Grove,
Minn.
Two 21-year-old men were charged with a hate crime after attacking a woman they
perceived to be a lesbian in a "road rage" incident. The men allegedly pushed
the woman and called her a lesbian and then later attacked her.
Nov. 23, 1999, Elkhart, Ind.
Two white teen-agers were charged with murder in what prosecutors say was the
racially motivated random shooting of a black teen-ager. One of the whites allegedly
told friends that he hoped the killing would win him a membership in the Aryan
Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang, and the right to wear its spider-web
tattoo. The tattoo symbolizes that a member has killed a person of a minority
race and is considered by some skinheads to be a badge of honor. Police said
the victim was shot in the head while walking in a suburban residential area,
returning from a mall where he had bought diapers for his girlfriend’s baby.
November 1999, Baltimore
A group of six people went on a crime spree that included over a dozen armed
robberies and four car-jackings. While most of the victims were threatened at
gunpoint and otherwise not injured, one man was hit in the head with a baseball
bat, and Tacy Ranta, a prominent transgender activist, was fatally shot in the
chest. Police did not consider it a hate crime, only attempted robbery. Nevertheless,
according to the detective on the case, one of the assailants asked the shooter
why he had shot “that lady.” The shooter replied, “That was no lady – that was
a faggot.” Some transgender activists believe that since Ranta was the only
one killed, the murder was a hate crime based on her status as a transsexual.
Five people were arrested in connection with the murder. (The Baltimore Sun,
Dec. 5, 1999)
December 1999, Upland, Calif.
A man died after being hit in the head with a pool cue by an attacker who accused
him of being gay. Jason Anderson pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced
to 12 years in prison. (Los Angeles Times, Inland Valley Edition, Sept. 8, 2001)
Dec. 1, 1999, Deland, Fla.
Stephen Parez, 24, and Tony Jones, 26, were charged in the racially motivated
beating of a black man in November.
Dec. 7, 1999, Chestertown,
Md.
A 73-year-old black woman was murdered when she was driving home from a Christmas
shopping trip with two relatives after a pick-up truck with two people in it
began following them, honking their horns and flashing their lights. After following
them for more than 30 minutes, the truck pulled up next to the car, and a passenger
in the truck fired into the vehicle, fatally injuring the driver. Police investigated
the incident as a hate crime.
Dec. 12, 1999, Washington County,
Pa.
Three men who went to an adult bookstore to "roll a pickle," or rob a homosexual,
now face charges of kidnapping, robbery, aggravated assault, tampering with
evidence and one count of conspiring to commit the crimes in the disappearance
of Ira Swearingen, 49, a medical consultant from Stout, Nev. The gruesome details
of the abduction, beating and murder of Swearingen were revealed in court. After
being abducted, Swearingen was stuffed inside the trunk of his rental car while
one of the perpetrators allegedly said, "Did ya hear it? I broke his jaw." Another
perpetrator heard gurgling of blood and heard the victim screaming. They yelled
"Shut up faggot! Shut up, pickle." Later, the victim was driven to an isolated
area, forced to strip and marched into the woods as he pleaded for his life
at which point, one perpetrator testified, he shot the victim between the eyes
at close range.
December 1999, Boca Raton,
Fla.
A Broward County male prosecutor was arrested after "trashing" a gay nightclub
while wearing women’s clothes and calling patrons "fags" and "dykes."
Jan. 15, 2000, Elmwood Park,
N.J.
After days of anti-gay taunts and threats, a classmate beat a 16-year-old gay
student at Memorial High School in Elmwood Park. The teen’s face was bruised
and cut from being tackled and repeatedly punched in the face and body.
Jan. 19, 2000, Columbus, Ohio
Scott Roberts, a gay man, told The Columbus Dispatch that he believes he and
his partner of six years, Bill Camelin, were attacked because they are gay.
Camelin was shot to death in the attack, and Roberts was wounded in the knee.
Shortly after midnight, Roberts said, he and Camelin saw two men smile and signal
to them in another car; so they followed them down a side street thinking they
might be another gay couple. Once parked, the two suspects allegedly got out,
asked what the men wanted and shot the two victims.
Jan. 27, 2000, San Marcos,
Calif.
Orvill Ware, 49, was charged with allegedly threatening a black delivery worker
with a loaded handgun.
Jan. 28, 2000, Boston
A group of high school teen-agers sexually assaulted and attacked a 16-year-old
Boston High School student on the subway because she was holding hands with
another young girl, a common custom from her native African country. Thinking
the victim was a lesbian, the group began groping the girl, ripping her clothes
and pointing at their own genitals, while shouting "Do you like this? Do you
like this? Is this what you like?" When the girl resisted, officials said, a
teen-age boy who was with the group allegedly pulled a knife on the girl, held
it to her throat and threatened to slash her if she didn’t obey her attackers.
The girl passed out from being beaten. Three high school students were arrested
in the attack and charged with civil rights violations, assault with a dangerous
weapon, assault and battery, and indecent assault and battery.
Jan. 28, 2000, Arcata, Calif.
Daniel Wright Goupil, 20, and Nathan James Cunningham, 21, were charged with
civil rights violations for allegedly assaulting a black man at a phone booth.
Jan. 31, 2000, Washington,
Ill.
Barry Todden, 37, was charged with aggravated assault after he allegedly tried
to run two cars off the road and yelled racial slurs at a white male who was
riding with a black male.
Jan. 31, 2000, Ithaca, N.Y.
Shawn Lehman was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for his role in the July
attack on a black man.
Feb. 1, 2000, Tujunga, Calif.
The shooting of an African-American man is being investigated as a hate crime.
The man was walking outside his home with a relative when a sport utility vehicle
pulled into the driveway in front of them, blocking their path. Two people stepped
out of the vehicle; one shouted a racial epithet before shooting the victim
in the face. Authorities said the attack was unprovoked.
Feb. 4, 2000, Wayne County,
Mich.
A jury convicted a 15-year-old boy of manslaughter for killing Alexander Charles,
a 16-year-old schoolmate the previous May. Police reports reveal that the perpetrator
told investigators that he was angry with Charles, possibly over an unwanted
sexual advance.
Feb. 6, 2000, Tuscon, Ariz.
A 20-year-old gay University of Arizona student was sitting at a cafe when a
man came up behind him and punched and stabbed him with large knife. Witnesses
heard the perpetrator saying that he had "killed a fucking faggot," "this is
what gays deserve," and "let this be a warning to the gay community." The victim
was treated at a local hospital and released. The attack spurred an anti-hate
rally on campus a few days later that drew over 1,000 people.
Feb. 9, 2000, Santa Clarita,
Calif.
Three white men allegedly attacked a black man and yelled racial slurs at him.
Feb. 10, 2000, Bay Shore, N.Y.
Javier Morales, 18, was charged with allegedly assaulting a man he believed
was gay.
Feb. 10, 2000, Rolla, Mo.
Joshua W. Davis, 18, was sentenced to seven years in prison for a January assault
against an Asian student.
Feb. 14, 2000, Novato, Calif.
Robert White, 18, was charged with assault for allegedly attacking a man who
White believed was gay.
Feb. 16, 2000, Brooksville,
Calif.
Huston F. Hill, 41, was charged with felonious assault and misdemeanor battery
for allegedly making racist remarks to three black men and a black woman and
trying to run over them with a golf cart.
Feb. 19, 2000, Gloucester,
Mass.
Marc Anderson, 22, and Bruce Stone, 20, were charged with assault and battery
with a deadly weapon for allegedly attacking three black men.
March 1, 2000, Wilkinsburg,
Pa.
A black man, Ronald Taylor, was charged with a hate crime after going on a shooting
rampage and killing three white men and leaving two others critically wounded.
Prior to the attack, he told a black woman that he wouldn’t hurt her because
he was "out to get all white people." The perpetrator was allegedly yelling
racial epithets at white maintenance workers and shot only white men on his
rampage, and authorities found anti-white, anti-Jewish and anti-gay writings
in his home.
March 1, 2000, Salt Lake City,
Utah
A case, which has been used to highlight the need for strengthening Utah’s hate
crimes statute, resulted in two defendants pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault
charges and a third defendant pleading guilty earlier to simple assault and
criminal mischief for his part in a 45-minute crime spree that began outside
a gay bar in 1999 in which two people were beaten and three others terrorized.
"Are you a faggot?" one of the defendants yelled. "He is a faggot!" another
replied, as they chased the first victim to his car and pounded on his vehicle
until the victim was able to escape to call the police. Later, the defendants
yelled anti-gay slurs and threw beer bottles at another car that had two men
in it. Forty-five minutes after the initial attack, two of the defendants waited
outside the gay bar and beat two men who had just exited the bar. One defendant
told the arresting officer that they were "just out for a good time."
March 3, 2000, San Diego
Billy Dean McCall, 29, was convicted of felonious battery causing serious injury
to a woman under the California hate crime law that applies specifically to
hatred due to gender.
March 3, 2000, Indianapolis,
Ind.
Six men who are allegedly members of a reported white supremacist group called
the Knightstown Boys were charged with attempted murder for allegedly beating
a man who refused to give a Nazi salute.
March 6, 2000, Carbondale,
Ill.
A male student at Southern Illinois University was allegedly taunted with anti-homosexual
slurs and beaten by an unknown assailant.
March 6, 2000, St. Louis, Mo.
Kathleen Edwards, 36, and David W. Edwards, 35, were charged with assaulting
a 13-year-old black girl while yelling a racial slur.
March 10, 2000, Fort Lauderdale,
Fla.
Ray Leone, 21, a member of the neo-Nazi World Church of the Creator, was sentenced
to six years in prison for his role in the robbery and beating of a video storeowner
in 1998.
March 22, 2000, Dix Hills,
N.Y.
A distraught father committed suicide after the New York Police Department told
him that they believed a skull and bones found in a plastic container in a park
in Queens belonged to his stepson, Steen Fenrich, 19, who had been missing for
six months. The teen’s Social Security number and racial and anti-homosexual
epithets were written on the skull with a marker. Fenrich was African-American.
March 26, 2000, Auburndale,
N.Y.
Two white youths wielding bottles allegedly attacked two Hispanic men.
March 27, 2000, San Bernardino,
Calif.
Anthony Conrad, 31, a member of the white supremacist gang the Nazi Low Riders,
was sentenced to seven years in prison for the June attack of a black woman.
March 29, 2000, Escondido,
Calif.
Jason Williams, 21, was charged with arson for allegedly using an aerosol can
and a cigarette lighter to burn his black neighbor while yelling racial slurs.
March 29, 2000, Santa Rosa,
Calif.
Christopher Davidson was sentenced to six months in jail for shooting out the
rear window of a woman’s car that had gay pride stickers on it.
April 2000, Michigan/International
A former U.S. Navy officer, accused of killing four Michigan women, has disclosed
to police that he murdered 12 to 20 prostitutes around the world. He has been
linked to the deaths of numerous women, in the United States in Hawaii, North
Carolina and Virginia, and internationally in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore,
Japan, Korea and Israel. He has reported to police that he either killed, or
tried to kill, every prostitute with whom he had ever had sex, often choking
them and engaging in necrophilic acts. Armstrong’s victims were all women and
one man who was dressed as a woman. (Real-Life Gender Bias Crimes, NOWLDEF,
July 2001)
April 2000, Washington, D.C.
A 47-year-old retired military helicopter pilot was charged with the murder
of a 16-year-old girl found shot and dumped in a ditch. He is suspected in the
shooting deaths of 12 to 18 women, with definitive DNA evidence linking him
to eight of those women. The Spokane, Wash., father of four was previously charged
with misdemeanor assault in 1998 for battering his 19-year-old daughter. (Real-Life
Gender Bias Crimes, NOWLDEF, July 2001)
April 1, 2000, San Diego
A man who randomly assaulted a woman on the street was sentenced under the state
hate crime statute. The jury found that the perpetrator’s hatred of women motivated
him after he tackled a woman from behind and hit her head on the sidewalk.
April 2, 2000, Mesa, Ariz.
Matt Kessler was charged with simple assault for allegedly attacking a black
man.
April 2, 2000, Cedar Rapids,
Iowa
Jason Allen, 20, was charged with allegedly attacking another man because he
believed the man was gay.
April 3, 2000, Bakersfield,
Calif.
Three white males allegedly attacked a student because they believed the student
was gay.
April 4, 2000, Chicago
A black teen-ager at Columbia College allegedly attacked a white man.
April 5, 2000, Sacramento,
Calif.
Kenneth Nemetz, 22, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for murdering a man
because the man was black.
April 5, 2000, Indiantown,
Fla.
Five white teens were charged with allegedly robbing and attacking two Guatemalan
men.
April 5, 2000, Sumter, S.C.
Bryan A. Carraway, 18, and a 15-year-old were charged with attempted arson and
burning of personal property for allegedly throwing a fire bomb through the
window of a predominantly black church and breaking the windows of the local
office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
April 6, 2000, Ashland, Ore.
Michael Susee was charged with intimidation and assault for allegedly attacking
three gay men while yelling anti-gay remarks.
April 12, 2000, San Francisco
Edgar Mora, 27, was sentenced to three years in prison for involuntary manslaughter
and two years for a hate crime in connection with the March 1998 murder of a
gay man.
April 13, 2000, Coeur d’Alene,
Idaho
Edward Jesse Warfield, former security chief for the neo-Nazi group the Aryan
Nations, was sentenced to five years in prison for firing an assault rifle at
a vehicle occupied by a woman and her son. Aryan Nations member John Yeager,
21, pleaded guilty to a felony crime for his part in chasing and shooting at
the pair, who were driving past the group’s compound. Yeager was sentenced in
May to five years in prison.
April 19, 2000, Keene, N.H.
Jonathan Shapiro, 19, was sentenced to three years of probation for carving
anti-gay epithets into a student’s back in 1999.
April 20, 2000, San Ramon,
Calif.
Adam Andrew Davis, Adam Thomas Brown and Steven Patrick McGuire, all 18, allegedly
attacked a black youth.
April 20, 2000, Stafford, Va.
Thomas Rivers, 18, allegedly attacked a 15-year-old gay teen-ager by bashing
him in the back of the head with a metal pole, almost killing him. The previous
year, after Rivers learned that the younger boy thought he was cute, Rivers
lashed out by shouldering him in hallways at school, shouting slurs and spitting
on him. The attack came eight months later when Rivers saw the boy walking in
an area park. (The Washington Post, Dec. 8, 2000)
April 21, 2000, Los Angeles
Kevin Timothy Dale, 23, was sentenced to 37 months in prison for his role in
a 1995 attack on an Asian man. April 25, 2000, Germantown, Md. A judge granted
a protective order for a woman who was allegedly attacked by a man because of
her sexual orientation. According to the victim, she, her partner and their
11-year-old daughter have been the victims of repeated anti-gay slurs and have
had rocks and other items throw at their home because they are gay and some
neighbors "want us out of the neighborhood." The incident in question occurred
after a verbal altercation between the victim’s child and the perpetrator’s
child, culminating in the perpetrator’s attack of the victim. When police arrived
on the scene, the victim was laying on the ground; her hand was bleeding; she
had been kicked repeatedly in the head by the perpetrator and his 12-year-old
son while the son was allegedly yelling, "I’m going to kill you dyke bitch."
Her face was swollen, and she had footprints on her shirt and marks on her neck
and chest that required overnight hospitalization. Despite this, the police
did not handle the incident as a hate crime and said that it was against their
regulations to arrest the perpetrator because they had not witnessed the attack,
thus forcing the woman to seek the aforementioned protective order to ensure
her and her family’s safety.
April 29, 2000, Pittsburgh
Richard Scott Baumhammers, 34, a white man who resents non-Europeans, was charged
with murder and hate crimes in a shooting rampage targeting minorities that
left five dead and one critically wounded. The first victim was a Jewish neighbor,
Anita Gordon, who was shot six times before her house was set afire. From there,
the perpetrator allegedly went from shopping mall to shopping mall shooting
and killing two Asian Americans, Thao Quoc Pham and Ji-Ye Sun at a Chinese restaurant;
an African American, Garry Lee, at a karate school; and a man from India, Anil
Thakurt, at an Indian grocery. Also shot at the Indian grocery was Sandeep Patel
who was in critical condition. In his path, Baumhammer also shot up two synagogues
painted in red the word "Jew" and two swastikas on one of the buildings. According
to press reports, Baumhammers’ attorney is mounting an insanity defense.
May 1, 2000, San Jose, Calif.
Victor Podbreger was sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in a hate
crime assault in 1999.
May 1, 2000, Jacksonville,
Fla.
Two of five men accused of the beating death of a mentally retarded man went
on trial in what is being called a racially motivated killing. Altogether, five
African-American men, ages 17 to 22, have been charged with beating and stomping
Gregory Griffith, 50, to death in the August incident. The group allegedly had
planned to attack the first white man who walked down the street. A witness
testified that he saw fists flying and a white man backing out of a crowd, swinging
and ducking before falling to the ground and being kicked in the midriff and
head. Griffith died 13 days later from blunt head trauma.
May 14, 2000, Minneapolis,
Minn.
Aaron Figueroa, 20, who said he hated black people, was found guilty of attempted
first-degree murder for shooting Stephen Arnold, 14, in the back on Martin Luther
King Jr. Day more than two years ago. According to court records, the perpetrator
purchased a rifle and a box of shells from a gun shop two hours before the shooting
and returned them less than an hour after the shooting, minus one bullet. The
perpetrator allegedly bragged to at least two friends that “he shot a black
kid.” (The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, May 14, 2000)
May 15, 2000, Suitland, Md.
A male-to-female transgender woman was found dead in her apartment. Known as
Carla Natasha Hunt, 35, the victim’s body was the second male-to-female transgender
woman to be found dead in the Washington, D.C., area. The authorities do not
believe the two slayings are linked but local activists fear the two slayings
may be hate crimes. Both victims frequented a section of the District known
as a gathering place for transgender persons who solicit sex for money. The
victim was found shot to death in the foyer of her apartment. The first victim,
Tyrone "Tyra" Henderson, 22, whose body was found in an alley in northwestern
Washington three weeks earlier, had suffered severe blunt force trauma to the
head. According to news reports, the murders caused panic in the transgender
community.
May 17, 2000, Holbrook, Mass.
A grand jury indicted a 17-year-old high school student on seven charges for
attacking a fellow student he believed to be gay. For five months prior to the
attack, the perpetrator allegedly harassed the victim. In the attack, which
occurred in the school cafeteria, the perpetrator hit the victim five or six
times in the head before knocking him to the floor. The attack left the victim
with a punctured eardrum and internal bleeding.
May 20, 2000, Louisville, Ky.
Jason Goode, 21, and Derek Bernardi, 23, were charged with two counts of attempted
murder for allegedly shooting at two black men while shouting racial slurs.
May 22, 2000, Idaho Falls,
Idaho
Mark E. Johnston, 22, was charged with felony malicious harassment for allegedly
threatening to kill a man because the man is Hispanic.
May 23, 2000, Salt Lake City
Police are investigating whether a 19-year-old woman working for the Southern
Utah Wilderness Alliance was beaten and robbed because her attackers presumed
she was a lesbian. The woman was canvassing when a male attacker in his 20s
-- one of two white men with shaved heads -- allegedly ran up behind her, punched
her in the face and knocked her down. The woman said the suspect then kicked
her in the face while he yelled "dyke" and "queer." Initially, police response
was slow, and the incident was not being treated as a hate crime. After pressure
from local activists, police have said they are investigating the case as a
potential hate crime.
May 26, 2000, Jacksonville,
Fla.
Two black men, Terrance McCray, 19, and Ledel Lawrence, 21, were convicted of
murder in the beating death of a white man
May 30, 2000, Salt Lake City
A man armed with a pellet gun stormed into a gym, fired a couple of shots and
purportedly made threatening comments to the gay people in the gym. A 23-year-old
man was arrested for assault and police are investigating the incident as a
hate crime. The club’s manager said the gym is a health and social club for
gay and straight men. (Salt Lake City Tribune, May 30, 2000)
June 1, 2000, Baltimore
Gary William Mick, 25, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, attempted murder
and armed robbery after admitting that he murdered a gay man and tried to kill
another because, he told police, he thought gay men were "evil." In the first
attack, a New Jersey man was bludgeoned to death with a claw hammer at the Admiral
Fell Inn in the Fells Point area of Baltimore. Mick met his second victim, a
dentist, at a bar, had dinner with him and went home with him. He later attacked
him with a knife. The men struggled and the victim escaped. The perpetrator
told police that a childhood incident caused him to hate homosexuals.
June 4, 2000, Rapid City, S.D.
Press reports indicate that police are "baffled" by a series of eight inexplicable
drowning deaths among mostly Native Americans along Rapid Creek that have occurred
over the course of 14 months. While law enforcement initially thought that the
severely intoxicated men were drowning by accident while they slept, local Native
Americans are skeptical of law enforcement and believe that "Indians get a whole
different kind of justice in South Dakota." According to the press, they believe
an "Indian-hater" is waiting for the victims to become drunk and then dragging,
rolling or pushing them into the water. These incidents come on the heels of
a March 2000 report from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission that shows that racial
tensions in the state are high and that American Indians in South Dakota have
a dim view of how justice is meted out in the state. (The Washington Post, June
4, 2000)
June 5, 2000, Billings, Mont.
Rudy Stanko, 53, a member of the World Church of the Creator, was charged with
allegedly handcuffing a woman and holding her hostage.
June 7, 2000, Bogue Chitto,
Miss.
Ernest Avants, 69, was charged with murder in the 1966 killing of a black man.
A suspect told police that the murder was planned in hopes of bringing Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. to the area so that he could be assassinated. (ABCNEWS.com)
June 8, 2000, Muncie, Ind.
Brian W. Worden, 21, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for attacking a man
with a tire iron because Worden believed the man was gay.
June 8, 2000, Asheville, N.C.
Jacob W. Stull, 22, was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for shooting into
a black family’s residence.
June 10, 2000, Albuquerque,
N.M.
A man in a minivan yelling obscenities ran down participants in a gay pride
parade. One victim was hit twice in the knees and thrown off the hood. The perpetrator
tried to swerve into the crowd, which included small children, three times before
police pulled him out of the vehicle and arrested him.
June 11, 2000, New York City
Police urged citizens to help capture those responsible for a suspected bias
attack against Hasidic Jews on the Coney Island boardwalk. Four Hasidic men
were stabbed in the attack after a confrontation with a group of Latino men.
Police said anti-Semitic slurs were used during the attack. (Newsday, June 13,
2000)
June 11, 2000, New York City
Fifteen men, some carrying large water pistols, squirted four women with water,
then tore off their clothes and groped them in Central Park. After attacking
two teens, the men set on a couple from France. They held the 29-year-old man
while they stripped and fondled his 28-year-old wife. Later, they attacked an
18-year old woman from England. (USA Today, June 12, 2000)
June 12, 2000, Providence,
R.I.
Ebony Thompson, a 21-year-old African-American senior at Brown University, reported
that she had been the victim of a racial attack on campus. Three intoxicated
white men physically attacked and shouted racial slurs at her last year. “You’re
a quota. You don’t belong here. You’re only here because your parents have money,”
she recalled hearing one of the perpetrators say. She claims the school did
little to prevent the intolerance. According to Thompson, university police
handled the incident, but no criminal charges were filed. (ABCNEWS.com, June
12, 2000)
June 15, 2000, Kokomo, Miss.
Raynard Johnson, a 17-year-old black teen-ager was found hanging from a tree
in his front yard. While police have continued to say the death was a suicide,
family members and civil rights leaders suspect that Johnson was murdered because
he had been dating white teen-age girls. Relatives have said that the teen had
been harassed by whites who did not approve of his dating white girls and that
the belt used in the hanging did not belong to Johnson. The family also reported
that on two nights before the death, Johnson had heard noises outside the home
and had fired a gun into the air to scare away possible intruders. (The Washington
Post, June 28, 2000)
June 15, 2000, Denver
First-degree murder charges were filed against Samuel Grauman, 21, who was accused
of killing, Daniel O’Brien, 36, because O’Brien was gay. Grauman and another
man were believed to have befriended gay men they thought would be easy robbery
targets. (The Associated Press, June 15, 2000)
June 16, 2000, Fenton, Mo.
A suburban St. Louis man pleaded guilty to assault after three black teens were
chased by 15 young white men, taunted with racial epithets and threatened with
death after arriving at a party on April 30. Three to five other suspects also
could be charged, according to authorities. (The Associated Press, June 16,
2000)
June 20, 2000, New York City
Amanda Milan, a 27-year-old transgender woman died after her throat was slashed
with a knife outside the Port Authority. Witnesses say that a group of cab drivers
cheered and applauded as the crime was committed and shouted transgender-phobic
remarks. One of the perpetrators allegedly shouted phrases like "You're a man!”
and "I know that's a [slang for male genitalia] between your legs.” Three men
were arrested in connection with the murder and held without bail. The incident
has not been classified as bias crime. (lgny.com news July 10, 2000)
June 24, 2000, Chicago
Two white men were charged with allegedly shouting racial slurs and firing a
gunshot in a black man’s direction.
June 28, 2000, San Diego
Jason D. Williams, 21, was sentenced to 56 months in prison for attacking his
black neighbor.
June 28, 2000, Fort Lauderdale,
Fla.
Robert Boltuch, 24, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1999 shooting
death of a black woman. Boltuch was also convicted of attempted first-degree
murder for firing seven shots at the woman’s fiancée, who is white.
June 29, 2000, Buena Park,
Calif.
Jeffrey Stuart Martin, 24, was charged with allegedly stabbing a black teen-ager
three years ago.
July 2, 2000, San Diego
The body of an undocumented migrant worker was found in a ravine in northern
San Diego County. Police indicated that the victim was approximately 25 years
old and had been beaten in the head and dragged on his face along the roadway.
A few days after the body was discovered, a carload of neo-Nazi skinheads attacked
four Mexican migrants, chased them, beat them and shot them with high-powered
pellet guns. Two of the victims had to have the pellets surgically removed.
Police have labeled the incident a hate crime. (La Voz de Aztlan, July 7, 2000,
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 8, 2000)
July 4, 2000, Brooklyn, N.Y.
An Arabic man, Othnanabed Magdy, 18, was charged with allegedly slashing three
men and threatening the life of another because he believed the men to be gay.
July 4, 2000, Ocean Shores,
Wash.
A racially charged fight escalated into a fatal stabbing of Christopher Kinison,
20. Kinison allegedly approached two brothers, Minh Hong and his twin brother
Hung Duc Hong and shouted "Gooks go home" and "White Supremacy." Kinison allegedly
punched Hung in the face before being stabbed by Minh 22 times with a kitchen
knife. The press reported that earlier that week, the victim had allegedly been
present when one man approached a group of about a dozen Filipino-Americans,
swore at them, punched the windows of their car and made references to "white
power.” (The Associated Press, July 13, 2000)
July 4, 2000, Grant Town, W.VA.
Arthur "J.R." Carl Warren Jr., 26, an openly gay African-American man was brutally
murdered. Two 17-year-old boys allegedly killed Warren, whose body was found
on the edge of his hometown. Known to call Warren names considered racial epithets
and anti-gay slurs, the boys allegedly beat him and repeatedly kicked him with
steel-toed boots. They threw him in a car and drove across town, ignoring his
pleas to be taken home, which they passed on the way to the gravel pullout where
they savagely kicked him and then ultimately killed him by driving back and
forth over him. Local law enforcement officials have refused to even consider
the possibility that this was a hate crime. Neither current federal law nor
West Virginia’s hate crimes law include sexual orientation. The Justice Department
has opened a preliminary investigation into the case. (Interviews with Warren
family)
July 4, 2000, Casper, Wyo.
A man was arrested on charges of firing shots at a group of people watching
a Fourth of July fireworks display in what police described as a hate crime.
Johnny Lee Hodge, who is white, was being held on $100,000 bond after allegedly
firing a shotgun at least three times at several black men and pointing the
gun at the head of a teen-age Indian girl, authorities said. Hodge made racial
slurs before shooting at the group. (The Associated Press, July 6, 2000)
July 5, 2000, San Diego
Nicholas Fileccia, Adam Ketsdever and Bradley Davidson, all 16; Kevin Williams
and Michael Rose, both 15; Jason Beever, 14, and Steven Deboer, 17, were charged
with allegedly beating and terrorizing elderly migrant workers.
July 7, 2000, San Diego
Paul Cain, 28, a member of the Nazi Low Riders, was sentenced to 15 years to
life in prison for the beating and strangulation of a homosexual man in 1995.
July 8, 2000, Chico, Calif.
Ronald R. Haberman, 52, was jailed on suspicion of allegedly brandishing a knife,
making racial slurs and threatening another man’s life.
July 10, 2000, Azusa, Calif.
Two bottles filled with gasoline were thrown at the home of a black family.
July 11, 2000, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Police were searching for a large man, usually clad in black who had been slashing
and beating men in a park known as a gay hangout. Four victims had been attacked
over a course of two weeks with either a baseball bat or knife. One victim heard
his attacker yell, “I’m going to kill you.” Another suffered slash wounds to
his neck, hands, head and arms. The incidents are being investigated as possible
hate crimes. (The New York Post, July 11, 2000)
July 11, 2000, Geneseo, N.Y.
Seven men, all in their early 20s, were charged with harassment, disorderly
conduct and assault for allegedly attacking a man of Korean descent.
July 13, 2000, Louisville,
Ky.
William Lee Stevens, 41, was charged with three counts of endangerment and one
count of intimidation for allegedly pointing a shotgun at his Hispanic neighbor.
July 14, 2000, Rutherfordton,
N.C.
Jacob Wayne Stull, 23, was sentenced to 35 months for shooting into the home
of a black family.
July 16, 2000, San Diego
Seven teen-age boys, ages 14 to 17, were arrested for attacking five elderly
Latino migrant workers and tried as adults. In addition to hate crimes, charges
also include assault, robbery and elder abuse. The seven were accused of chasing,
beating and shooting migrants living in a makeshift encampment in an isolated
canyon. Ethnic slurs were used during the attack. (The Los Angeles Times, July
19, 2000)
July 19, 2000, Santa Cruz,
Calif.
A group of white men allegedly attacked a black man and his white friend outside
a restaurant.
July 20, 2000, New Philadelphia,
Ohio
A smoke bomb was thrown onto the property of a black family.
July 21, 2000, Louisville,
Ky.
Kelly J. Moody was charged with assault, criminal mischief, five counts of endangerment
and three counts of harassment for allegedly attacking five people at random.
Moody allegedly used ethnic slurs against one of the victims who is Jewish.
July 24, 2000, Seymour, Ind.
Patrick Vogel, 19, and Mark Combs, 25, were charged with robbery, attempted
robbery, aggravated battery, confinement and attempted murder after allegedly
beating a Hispanic man unconscious.
July 25, 2000, Seymour, Ind.
Two men face attempted murder charges in a possible hate crime against a 22-year-old
Hispanic man. The victim, who was left with severe head injuries, was struck
in the head with a baseball bat and beaten and robbed. (The Tribune, July 25,
200)
July 25, 2000, Barron, Wis.
Raymond C. Welton, 33, was charged with a hate crime in the murder Michael Hatch,
a 22-year-old hearing-impaired, disabled man on Oct. 20. Prosecutors contend
that Hatch was robbed and beaten to death with a tire iron in part because his
assailants thought he was gay. Three perpetrators allegedly lured Hatch from
a bar because one of them had gone to school with him and thought he was gay.
They allegedly shouted "hatred for gay people" during the beating. (The Associated
Press, July 25, 2000, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Aug. 20, 2000)
July 28, 2000, Portland, Ore.
Eric Walter Runnings, 49, was sentenced to death for killing a lesbian couple
in 1998.
July 29, 2000, Mahwah, N.J.
A man who allegedly attacked two men after calling them gay was arrested and
charged with aggravated assault, bias harassment and bias assault. Witnesses
told police that the alleged perpetrator, William Courain, 26, was at an apartment
complex party when he began making obscene remarks to several of the guests
about their sexual orientation. He left the party and confronted two men in
the parking lot, calling them gay and making obscene comments before attacking
them. Witnesses say he began punching and kicking the two victims, one of whom
suffered bleeding from the mouth and eyes and was treated at a local hospital.
(The Record, Aug. 1, 2000)
July 30, 2000, San Diego
Two black men armed with a baseball bat allegedly attacked a gay man.
Aug. 2, 2000, San Bernardino,
Calif.
William Max Richie, 28, and David Craig Rolph, 24, members of the white supremacist
gang the Nazi Low Riders, were charged with conspiracy and assault with a deadly
weapon in the alleged attack of a black inmate.
Aug. 3, 2000, Queens, N.Y.
Nuno Martins, 20, was sentenced to eight years in prison for a 1998 racially
motivated assault on a young man of Indian descent.
Aug. 3, 2000, Seymour, Wis.
William A. Cheslock, 29, was charged with one count of battery and one count
of disorderly conduct for allegedly making anti-Semitic remarks and attacking
a woman at a 1999 Christmas party.
Aug. 4, 2000, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Several youths of Arab descent, ranging in age from 10 to 15 years old, allegedly
threw rocks at Jewish pedestrians.
Aug. 7, 2000, Lake Geneva,
Ill.
Douglas Zimmerman and Jeffrey Pottgether, both 18, were charged with battery
and disorderly conduct for allegedly attacking a Hispanic man while yelling
racial epithets.
Aug. 8, 2000, Minneapolis,
Minn.
Aaron L. Figueroa, 20, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the murder of
a black teen in 1998.
Aug. 8, 2000, Providence, R.I.
Police are investigating an alleged gay bashing attack in which two young men
said they were severely beaten and kicked by two strangers. The two victims
were walking down a street when a car slowed and passed them. Minutes later
the car drove by again, and the occupants allegedly began shouting vulgarities,
anti-gay slurs and said, “We’re going to kill you.” The victims yelled back;
the perpetrators allegedly got out of the car, shouted more anti-gay slurs and
vulgarities, threw a beer can at them and then proceeded to beat and punch the
victims in the head and body until one of them almost lost consciousness. The
perpetrators eventually got in their car and fled, and witnesses called for
help. (The Providence Journal, Aug. 11, 2000)
Aug. 9, 2000, Daly City, Calif.
Police charged four men with a hate crime for allegedly assaulting two gay men
in a fast food restaurant. (The Washington Blade citing San Francisco Chronicle,
Aug. 25, 2000)
Aug. 9, 2000, Oak Lawn, Ill.
Scott Keating, 22, was charged with a hate crime after he allegedly verbally
abused and assaulted a Russian immigrant because of the man's ethnic origin.
Aug. 11, 2000, New York City
A 17-year-old who announced to his parents that he was gay earlier in the year
was recovering after his parents severely beat him. Police say that Hendrick
Paterson, 49, and Sharon Paterson, 36, allegedly repeatedly smashed their son
with a lead pipe at a relative’s home as they yelled anti-gay slurs. “God will
punish you for your lifestyle!” “You can’t be gay,” the couple are quoted as
saying. The son was rushed to the hospital where he was treated and released
for multiple welts to his body. The NYPD hate crimes unit arrested the couple.
It is unclear how they will be charged. The attack was apparently the culmination
of a simmering six-month feud between the boy and his parents, who were so outraged
by his sexual orientation that they kicked him out of the house. He went to
live with an aunt, a few miles away, where the attack occurred. (The New York
Daily News, Aug. 13, 2000)
Aug. 12, 2000, Madison, Wis.
Several Asian men were charged with assault for allegedly attacking a black
man.
Aug. 16, 2000, Sacramento,
Calif.
Jay D. Nichols Jr., 26, and Shawn A. Duccini, 21, were charged with battery,
vandalism and two counts of committing a crime based on race for allegedly attacking
a black man.
Aug. 16, 2000, Cohoes, N.Y.
A former honors graduate and high-school football star received a 12-year prison
sentence for killing a gay man in 1999 after they reportedly had a sexual encounter.
Albany County prosecutors said David Linen, 21, fatally beat Robert Carpenter,
43, after engaging in sex with him. (The Washington Blade citing Albany Times
Union, Aug. 25, 2000)
Aug. 16, 2000, New Hope, Pa.
Douglas Trinkley, 21, and Larry Chroman, 36, were charged with simple assault,
disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment of another person for allegedly
attacking a man because of the man’s sexual orientation.
Aug. 17, 2000, Mayfield Heights,
Ohio
Five white men, Gregory A. Valore, 40, Jeffrey M. Welch, 42, Steven N. Walker
and Andres Lopez, both 22, and Shawn R. Markko, 26, were charged with assault
for allegedly beating a black man as he left the lounge where he works.
Aug. 18, 2000, Tyler, Texas
Four black men were charged with allegedly beating a white teen-ager unconscious.
Aug. 18, 2000, Washington,
D.C.
A group of boys shot through the front window of a well-known lesbian bar on
Capitol Hill, known as Phase I. Though witnesses had identified a gang of young
boys as the perpetrators, they escaped without being apprehended or questioned
because police response was slow. The bar manager had to call several times,
and after finally arriving, the police were reluctant to take a report. Three
years before the incident, a canister of tear gas was tossed into a gay bar
two blocks from Phase I, and police classified that incident as a hate crime.
(Letter from Bar Manager, Aug. 19, 2000)
Aug. 19, 2000, San Francisco
Two men were arrested on charges of stalking, assaulting and robbing men in
gay bars in what police say was "brazen, bicoastal crime spree that included
four robberies in Maine and vicious attacks on gays," including slashing one
victim's throat in California. The perpetrators were arrested when a bouncer
at a gay bar recognized their distinctive Boston accents after reading about
them in warning flier distributed by police. (The Boston Globe, Aug. 23, 2000)
Aug. 19, 2000, Los Altos, Calif.
Peter Ellsworth, 21, was charged with a hate crime after he allegedly called
two men anti-gay epithets and assaulted one of them in front of a hair salon.
Aug. 23, 2000, Geneva, Ill.
A 32-year-old black man was charged with aggravated assault after he allegedly
threatened to kill white police officers and their families.
Aug. 23, 2000, Allentown, Pa.
Two men face assault charges after police initially issued summary disorderly
conduct citations for grabbing, kicking and biting another man. Because the
two perpetrators also allegedly used anti-gay epithets during the attack, the
victim complained to police and to a local gay activist group that they were
initially only given citations. (Allentown Morning Call, Sept. 8, 2000)
Aug. 24, 2000, Allentown, Pa.
A 24-year old fatally shot a 15-year-old youth attending a party in his home
after the teen touched him on the arm and other partygoers suggested the teen
was gay. According to the Allentown Morning Call, a witness said that the alleged
perpetrator, Michael Gambler, retrieved a shotgun and shot Kevin Kleppinger
in the forehead. Friends say that Kleppinger was not gay and had been rubbing
the perpetrator’s arm because he thought he had accidentally spit on it. Other
teens in the apartment began teasing the victim that he might be gay before
the perpetrator shot him. (The Washington Blade, Sept. 15, 2000)
Aug. 25, 2000, Baton Rouge,
La.
A jury convicted Quincy Powell of second-degree murder for the beating and stomping
death of Michael Fleming, 38, a gay man in June 1999, according to the Baton
Rouge Advocate. Prosecutors said that Powell killed the victim because he was
gay and subsequently referred to the victim as “faggot Mike” when he recounted
the murder. (The Washington Blade, Sept. 8, 2000)
Aug. 25, 2000, Palm Springs,
Calif.
A judge ordered a U.S. Marine, Lance Horton, to pay $4,300 to a gay couple he
admitted beating and to complete charity work as part of his five-year probation,
according to the Desert Sun. Horton pleaded guilty to two counts of assault
and to two hate crimes as part of a plea agreement that involved no prison time.
(The Washington Blade, Sept. 8, 2000)
Aug. 26, 2000, Tulsa, Okla.
Close to 100 tombstones bearing Stars of David or Hebrew inscriptions in Rose
Hill Memorial Park were desecrated. Two men were apprehended, and the incident
is being investigated as a hate crime. Families of one of the alleged perpetrators
claim that he is not a racist despite the flaming swastika and “white power”
slogan tattooed on his body. One of the alleged perpetrators was also previously
accused of harassing a gay couple for six months, including painting anti-gay
messages on their house, shooting at them with a paint-ball gun and shouting
death threats. (Tulsa World, Aug. 26, 2000)
Aug. 27, 2000, Illnois
Police are investigating an off-campus beating of an Illinois State University
student as a possible gay-related hate crime. Christopher Weninger, who is not
gay, was walking home from a party when three men approached him and one asked
him for a cigarette. As Weninger handed the man a cigarette, another man punched
him in the face and called him “queer.” The men then ran away. Weninger suffered
a broken nose and eye socket. The victim was apparently wearing a shiny rayon
shirt that is popular among some gay men in the area. (The Washington Blade,
Sept. 8, 2000)
Aug. 28, 2000, Vidor, Texas
A house was firebombed and spray-painted with racial slurs and a swastika and
racial epithets were spray-painted on the sidewalk.
Aug. 30, 2000,Vancouver, Wash.
Dennis T. Barker, 21, and a 17-year-old were charged with suspicion of second-degree
assault and malicious harassment for allegedly assaulting a black teen.
Sept. 1, 2000, West Hollywood,
Calif.
Police responded to a call about a possible assault to find a transgender woman
lying on the ground. The victim had been severely assaulted and had possible
stab wounds to the neck, back and genital areas. The victim was in serious condition
and required surgery for her injuries. The incident was being investigated as
a possible hate crime, according to police. (Police Notice from Deputy Don Mueller,
West Hollywood Sheriff Station, Sept. 11, 2000)
Sept. 4, 2000, Staten Island,
N.Y.
Ten black teen-agers allegedly yelled racist remarks at a group of white teen-agers
and assaulted three of the teens. Peter McCoy, 16, Anthony McCoy, 17, and their
14-year-old cousin were charged with second-degree assault, second-degree robbery
and aggravated harassment.
Sept. 5, 2000, St. Louis, Mo.
A person wearing a white pillowcase allegedly shot a pregnant black woman in
the leg.
Sept. 6, 2000, San Rafael,
Calif.
A homeless man, Stephen Ray Bennet, was charged with a hate crime for allegedly
slapping a Mexican woman in the face and taunting her with racial insults.
Sept. 6, 2000, Lakewood, N.J.
Brian M. Haikins, a 30-year-old Orthodox Jewish man, was charged with a bias
crime for allegedly shouting racial slurs and hitting a 7-year-old black child.
Sept. 7, 2000, Los Angeles
A woman was charged with murder and hate crimes for allegedly killing a 65-year-old
Hispanic man, Jesus Plascensia, by running over him at least twice in a parking
lot. Authorities say the perpetrator made comments about her hatred of Hispanics
after the death and referred to the victim as “dead road kill.” (The Associated
Press, Sept. 7, 2000)
Sept. 7, 2000, Bridgeport,
Conn.
A black youth was charged with conspiracy to commit a hate crime after he allegedly
assaulted an Asian youth in June.
Sept. 8, 2000, Alexandria,
Va.
A federal grand jury is investigating whether the April 19 slaying of 8-year-old
Kevin Shifflett was racially motivated or a violation of federal civil rights
laws. Shifflet was stabbed as he played with other children in the front yard
of a relative’s home in the Del Ray neighborhood of this Washington, D.C., suburb.
A handwritten note found in a motel room where the suspect, who is black, stayed
two days before the stabbing referred to killing “them racist white kids.” Another
child who had been playing with Shifflet, who was white, told police that he
heard the assailant say something about “hating white people.” (The Washington
Post, Sept. 8, 2000)
Sept. 10, 2000, Tampa, Fla.
Randy Puryear, 40, was charged with manslaughter for allegedly shooting a black
man to death.
Sept. 15, 2000, Tallahassee,
Fla.
Lawrence Lombardi, a 42-year-old white man, was sentenced to life in prison
for setting off two pipe bombs at a predominantly black college in 1999.
Sept. 15, 2000, Troy, Ill.
Jason T. Oliver, 27, was charged with a hate crime after he allegedly tried
to run down two black women with his pickup truck.
Sept. 16, 2000, Appleton, Wis.
Three teens have been charged with felony, misdemeanors and hate crimes after
singling out a Christian and spraying him with pepper spray. The three were
looking for a victim, and after knocking on two doors where no one answered,
they found a house with a sign in the front yard that read, “You think you got
it all? Got Jesus?” One of the alleged perpetrators, Daniel Lewis, allegedly
told the others he would spray the occupant because “he was sick of all the
Christian religious talk and how he was raised by his parents.” He also said
the victim would probably be forgiving because of his or her Christian beliefs.
They approached the house and knocked, and when the occupant answered the door,
Lewis allegedly yelled, “Jesus is a fag” and “Satan rules, Jesus will not prevail”
and sprayed the victim in the face. (Appleton Post-Crescent News, Jan. 9, 2001)
Sept. 17, 2000, Bushnell, Fla.
Eric Charles Cowles, 21, was charged with aggravated assault for allegedly threatening
a black man with a baseball bat.
Sept. 17, 2000, Farmingville,
N.Y.
Two Mexican day laborers were brutally beaten and stabbed by two white men who
lured them with a promise of work to an abandoned warehouse in a desolate industrial
park. The day laborers were standing on the street corner waiting for a possibility
of work when the two men picked them up. On the way to the graffiti-ridden warehouse,
one man asked the workers if whether they were Mexican. That is when the attack
began. Later, the workers were led to a basement in the back of the warehouse
where the attack continued. Police have little doubt that the attack was a hate
crime and the perpetrators had carefully planned to murder their victims. (Newsday,
Sept. 19, 2000)
Sept. 18, 2000, Louisville,
Ky.
Jason Goode, 22 and Derek Bernardi, 23, were charged with two counts of attempted
murder for allegedly shooting at two black men.
Sept. 18, 2000, Louisville,
Ky.
Kelly J. Moody, 21, was charged with assault and criminal mischief for allegedly
taunting five people with obscenities and racial slurs.
Sept. 19, 2000, Cambridge,
Mass.
A Muslim student, who was wearing a prayer cap, was returning to his dorm from
Islamic prayer when two white men with shaved heads attacked him. The men grabbed
the student from behind and punched and kicked him. One of the perpetrators
allegedly used a racial epithet during the beating. The victim required medical
attention and received stitches for a wound in his head. (The Boston Herald,
Sept. 25, 2000)
Sept. 22, 2000, Roanoke, Va.
Ronald Edward Gay, 53, allegedly walked into the Backstreet Café and opened
fire on patrons, killing one person and wounding six others. Gay told police
that he shot seven people in a gay bar because he was angry about jokes people
made about his last name. Gay has been charged with first-degree murder in the
death of Danny Lee Overstreet. Police have said that Gay admits shooting people
“to get rid of, in his term, 'faggots.'” Police also report, “He told us people
made fun of his name. He told us that he was upset about that.” (The Washington
Post, Sept. 24, 25, 2000)
Sept. 23, 2000, New York City
A Korean immigrant, Jong Lee, died after being attacked on the front porch of
his building. Two attackers, identified as young men, their heads wrapped in
bandanas and one clutching a 10-pound cobblestone, viciously attacked him for
no apparent reason breaking his arm and fracturing his skull in the process.
Police are focusing on the possibility that Lee may have been killed by gang
members as an initiation rite. The attack happened three weeks after a similar
bashing-type murder of a Chinese restaurant owner, Jin-Sheng Liu. Liu was murdered
Sept. 1 when a group of five teens ordered take-out to an abandoned home and
ambushed him. (The New York Daily News, Oct. 1, 2000)
Oct. 1, 2000, Traverse City,
Mich.
A 23-year-old bartender at a local dance club frequented by gay patrons was
attacked as he was removing the trash out of the back door of the building around
2 a.m. An attacker grabbed him by the shoulders and began shouting “faggot”
and other obscenities at him. He swung the large metal trashcan at the one attacker,
knocking him over, as two other men jumped out, one brandishing a baseball bat.
The bartender ran and sprinted nearly four city blocks before circling back
to the club. The attackers chased him, yelling “We’re gonna break your legs,”
and jumped him again as he tried to enter the club. They finally fled when other
employees heard him yelling for help. His car had also been vandalized with
an anti-gay epithet that night. (Traverse City Record-Eagle, Oct. 6, 2000)
Oct. 1, 2000, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Two men allegedly attacked a Jewish man while yelling anti-Semitic remarks.
Oct. 3, 2000, Cambridge, Mass.
Benjamin D. Barjeil, 25, was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous
weapon and civil rights violations for allegedly attacking a Harvard University
student.
Oct. 4, 2000, LaCrosse, Wis.
Jason Welch and Jason Elisius, both 21, were charged with a hate crime for allegedly
targeting two gay men because of their sexual orientation.
Oct. 5, 2000 , Boston, Mass.
A group of white teens allegedly assaulted a 14-year-old black youth while yelling
racial slurs.
Oct. 6, 2000, Bowie, Md.
Three black Bowie High School students faced hate crime and assault charges
after they attacked a white male student at the bus stop. The three girls, one
of whom was overheard saying she hated white people and that she and her friend
would “pick on a different white person each day” -- pushed the boy to the ground.
The boy suffered a contusion to the head, a bloody nose and scrapes and bruises.
(The Washington Times, Oct. 26, 2000)
Oct. 9, 2000, East Islip, N.Y.
Kevin Kirk, 20, was charged with two counts of second-degree aggravated harassment
for allegedly punching a Hispanic man while yelling racial slurs.
Oct. 9, 2000 , Kenmore, N.Y.
A local newspaper editor allegedly was beaten and taunted with anti-Semitic
slurs during an arrest.
Oct. 10, 2000, Yaphank, N.Y.
Ryan Wagner, 19, was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated
assault for allegedly beating two Mexican men.
Oct. 13, 2000, Chicago
Amjad Assad and Seid Shukri Zatar, both 17, and a 16-year-old were charged with
assault and disorderly conduct for allegedly firing marbles from a slingshot
at Jewish pedestrians.
Oct. 13, 2000, Chicago
Police are investigating a shooting in which a dark sport utility vehicle fired
four or five shots at a rabbi sitting in his car. (ABCNews.com, Oct. 14, 2000)
Oct. 15, 2000, Bloomington,
Ill.
Ronald Martin, a 50-year-old white man, was charged with aggravated assault,
unlawful use of weapons and possession of a firearm without firearm-owner's
identification for allegedly pointing a double-barrel shotgun at a black man.
Oct. 17, 2000, New York City
The first of the men charged in a series of sexual assaults on more than four
dozen women during a daylight rampage in Central Park pleaded guilty to first-degree
rioting. Manual Nunez, 18, of the Bronx, was one of 30 men arrested in connection
with the attacks on 53 women after the Puerto Rican Day parade in June 2000.
The women were doused with water, stripped and groped by the assailants. (The
Washington Post, Oct. 18, 2000)
Oct. 18, 2000, Traverse City,
Mich.
Peter J. Hatt, 20, was charged with ethnic intimidation and assault for allegedly
threatening a black security guard at a local nightclub.
Oct. 19, 2000, Oceanside, Calif.
Robert Michael Coats, 34, was sentenced to 35 years to life in prison for his
role in a 1999 attack on two black men.
Oct. 20, 2000, Cadillac, Mich.
Jesse Mitchell Barber, 18, was charged with ethnic intimidation and assault
and battery for allegedly threatening and attacking a woman because of her ethnicity.
Oct. 21, 2000, Fort Worth,
Texas
A Bell High School student, 17, was hospitalized after two 17-year-olds allegedly
attacked him in a parking lot, beating him and scratching an anti-gay slur into
his car. The victim suffered a broken nose and numerous other injuries, including
cuts, bruises and two blood clots on his brain. News reports indicate that the
victim was not gay. (MSNBC.com, Oct. 26, 2000)
Oct. 23, 2000, Sterling, Mich.
Randolph Scott, 36, faces charges of intimidation for allegedly assaulting a
black man in a bar.
Oct. 24, 2000, Atlanta
A white male with a shaved head and a swastika tattooed on his arm allegedly
attacked a student at a Jewish high school after spray-painting a swastika in
front of the school's door.
Oct. 25, 2000, Bowie, Md.
Three black high school girls were charged with second-degree assault and a
hate crime for allegedly attacking and verbally abusing a white male student.
Oct. 26, 2000, Clearwater,
Fla.
A 19-year-old was convicted of murder and attempted murder for firing a single
bullet through the home of a biracial couple, killing a six-year-old girl and
wounding her twin and half sisters. The perpetrator, who was known for his hatred
of minorities, had pictures of himself posing in front of a Nazi flag, had racist
tattoos and had written a note saying that “someone had to for race and nation.”
(The Associated Press, Oct. 26, 2000)
Oct. 27, 2000, Fox Lake, Ill.
Jerry Williams, 40, was sentenced to two years in prison for attacking a black
woman and her daughters.
Oct. 29, 2000, Temecula, Calif.
Kenny Vierra, 21, Jack Houston, 25, and Staci Schillace, 23, were charged with
a hate crime for allegedly beating a man and shouting racial slurs at him because
they believed he was Hispanic.
Oct. 30, 2000, Phoenix, Ariz.
Jodi Showers, 36, was sentenced to six months in jail and placed on three years’
probation for sending threatening letters and stalking a black family and a
Hispanic family during a two-year period beginning in 1997.
Oct. 31, 2000, Green Island,
N.Y.
Four white teen-agers allegedly assaulted a black man.
Oct. 31, 2000, Lake Geneva,
Wis.
Jeffery Pottgether, 18, was sentenced to seven years of probation and ordered
to pay more than $1,200 in restitution for a charge of being party to a crime
of battery in a hate crime.
Nov. 2, 2000, Garden City,
N.Y.
Christopher Slavin, 29, was charged with two counts of attempted murder and
two counts of aggravated harassment for allegedly beating two Mexican men.
Nov. 6, 2000, Oakland Gardens,
N.Y.
Marlon Fernandez, 19, and Marvin A. Otega, 16, were charged with two counts
of third-degree assault as a hate crime, aggravated harassment and harassment
for allegedly attacking two black teen-agers.
Nov. 7, 2000, Bonduel, Wis.
Grant Heim, 18, and Jeremy Martin, 19, were charged with two felony counts of
being party to recklessly endangering safety for allegedly trying to run an
Asian couple off the road because of the couple's ethnicity.
Nov. 8, 2000, Riverside, Calif.
Daniel Martinez Murguia, 19, was charged with a hate crime for allegedly beating
a man he believed to be gay.
Nov. 14, 2000, Long Island,
N.Y.
Micheal Ashley, 42, was charged with allegedly assaulting his roommate because
of the roommate's sexual orientation.
Nov. 14, 2000, Nassau, N.Y.
Keith Doherty, 29, was charged with second-degree assault for allegedly attacking
and harassing a man with anti-Hispanic slurs.
Nov. 15, 2000, Carmel Valley,
Calif.
Eight teen-agers were charged with hate crimes in an alleged July shooting rampage
against five Mexican women.
Nov. 15, 2000, Lawrence, N.Y.
William Jakubowski, 16, was charged with aggravated harassment in an alleged
anti-Semitic attack on a man returning home from Yom Kippur services.
Nov. 16, 2000, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Two Hispanic teen-agers face hate crime charges for allegedly attacking two
black teens.
Nov. 20, 2000, Savannah, Ga.
The body of Billy Jean Levetter, 46, a transgender individual, was found in
a secluded area, face up with a wound to the back of the head, his pants pulled
half-way down and shirt pulled up. Levette was the second transgender victim
to be found dead in the Savannah area in about a year after the body of “Sissy”
Charles Bolden, 36, was found in the woods in October 1999. Bolden was wearing
women’s clothing and had been shot to death. Both victims were known as “streetwalkers,”
and the motive is unknown, according to police. (The Southern Voice, April 13,
2001.)
Nov. 22, 2000, Couer D’Alene,
Idaho
Mark E. Johnston, 22, was being tried under the state’s hate crime statute for
picking a fight with a Hispanic man in sports bar and threatening to kill him.
The alleged victim said Johnston whispered an ethnic slur to him saying “I kill
[people] like you.” Johnston, whom the victim identified as a strong-looking
“Nazi guy,” has admitted being prejudiced against minorities. (CourtTV.com,
Nov. 27, 2000)
Nov. 22, 2000, Greenfield,
Mass.
David Berry, 26, was charged with assault with intent to murder, mayhem, assault
and battery with a dangerous weapon, civil rights violations, and assault and
battery for intimidation due to race for an alleged racially motivated attack
on a white man and his black friend.
December 2000, Washington,
D.C.
The A-1 Grocery Store, owned by a Korean immigrant, Frank Han, in the northeast
section of town was firebombed with a pipe bomb and vandals wrote racist epithets
and threats all over the outer wall. The incident came the month after a boycott
was launched against the store by the New Black Panther Party, founded by ex-Nation
of Islam official Khalid Muhammad. The group accused the proprietor of being
a “bloodsucker” after an altercation with a black teen-age girl about the price
of an ice cream bar. The group had said they would use “any means necessary”
to shut the store down. (The Washington Times, Jan. 2, 2001)
Dec. 1, 2000, Reno, Nev.
Joshua Kudlacek, 19, Carl DeAmicis, 26, Scott Hudson, 24, Christopher Hampton,
23, and Daniel McIntosh, 20, were sentenced to five to 15 years in prison after
pleading guilty to attempting to bomb a synagogue in 1999.
Dec. 2, 2000, Carlsbad, Calif.
Four youths are being charged with a hate crime – and one with assault with
a deadly weapon, for allegedly beating a 34-year-old man because they believed
he was gay. The victim testified that he was confronted by a group of people
as he was walking home from a bar. One person from the group yelled at him,
“Hey, faggot, what are you looking at?” according to a witness. (KGTV, The SanDiegoChannel.com,
April 13, 2001)
Dec. 6, 2000, Placer County,
Calif.
Police were investigating sexual assault of a 37-year-old African-American woman
at a rest stop along Interstate 80 as a hate crime. The alleged perpetrators,
two white men, were hiding in a restroom stall when they attacked, bound and
gagged the victim with duct tape before assaulting her and writing racial slurs
all over her body. (KCRA On-Line, Sacramento, Calif., Dec. 6, 2000)
Dec. 7 – 15, 2000, Wichita,
Kan.
Two brothers, Reginald and Jonathan Carr, were charged with multiple counts
of capital murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and robbery of eight victims during
a weeklong period. Because the Carrs are black and their victims were white,
some in the community have called on authorities to charge the victims with
hate crimes. In addition to robbing and shooting a local symphony cellist, the
perpetrators allegedly abducted five people and forced them to withdraw money
from a local ATM. They then raped and sodomized the female victims, forced the
men to rape the women and later marched the victims into a field where they
were ordered to kneel and were murdered execution style. Miraculously, one of
the victims survived and sought help. (The Washington Times, Feb. 11, 2001)
Dec. 10, 2000, Jacksonville,
Fla.
Three white men, Edward R. Fix Jr., Robert H. Parrott and Jacob A. Laskey, all
20, were arrested on hate crime charges for allegedly assaulting a black man.
The victim was walking down the street when the three allegedly said, "There’s
one, let’s get him” as they ran toward him. The perpetrators, who had allegedly
met at a white-supremacist rally, knocked the victim to the ground, punched
and kicked him. (The Associated Press, Dec. 11, 2000)
Dec. 30, 2000, San Diego
Four men were charged with mayhem, assault and hate crimes in the beating of
man who is part Hispanic and part Italian. Police said the victim was attacked
because of his race and lifestyle. He was beaten so savagely that he lost his
nose and his ability to smell. The defendants are accused of yelling, “Lakeside,
this is for white power!” and “Go back to Mexico where you belong,” as they
beat the victim in the face. (TheSanDiegoChannel.com, Feb. 2, 2001)
2000, Colorado
Two men in a car harassed a white lesbian as she left a 7-11 store; one of them
yelled an obscenity and called her a “faggot.” The victim got into her own pickup
truck and drove away, but the offenders followed her and eventually drove her
off the road. When she got out of her car, the two men assaulted her sexually
and beat her unconscious. A detective who later interviewed the victim about
the incident was verbally abusive, calling her a “liar” when she said she couldn’t
provide a detailed description of her attackers. (Anti-Lesbian, Gay, Transgender
and Bisexual Violence in 2000, A Report of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence
Programs)
Jan. 7, 2001, Ashburn, Ga.
Robert Martin, 32, was hospitalized in critical condition after being found
lying outside an abandoned school with head injuries from a blunt object. Martin
was wearing a dress at the time. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was investigating
but had no motive or suspects. Press reports indicate that Martin had been beaten
and harassed before because of his perceived homosexuality. (The Associated
Press, Jan. 10, 2001)
Jan. 8, 2001, Lake County,
Fla.
Police said that David Lee Troutman shot and killed Robert Spencer, an African-American
man, as he walked out of an Island Food Store. Moments later, Troutman drove
to another Island Food Store and shot and killed himself. Investigators believe
the perpetrator was mentally unstable and had threatened to go after African
Americans. The victim may have been the first African American that Troutman
saw. (WESH NewsChannel, Orlando, Fla., Jan. 9, 2001)
Jan. 10, 2001, Las Vegas, Nev.
Alleged racist Skinhead John Edward Butler, 28, was sentenced to death for the
murders of two anti-racist Skinheads in 1998.
Jan. 15, 2001, Prospect Park,
N.Y.
Police released a sketch of a suspect after the fifth ninja-like stabbing in
Prospect Park, N.Y., near a popular area for gay man. Police suspect bias as
the motive, as no robbery attempts have been made. The victim was slashed across
the throat and stabbed in the chest and back. (PlanetOut, Jan. 19, 2001)
Jan. 17, 2001, Helena, Mont.
An openly gay student at Carroll College withdrew from school 14 days after
being knocked unconscious and beaten in his dorm room. The victim did not initially
report the incident due to fear of further retribution. Someone struck the student
in head with a bottle as he returned to his room from the dorm showers early
in the morning and then beat him while he was unconscious. The attacker also
wrote “Die Fag” on his body with an ink marker. Cuts on the student’s eye required
surgery. (The Associated Press, Feb. 9, 2001)
Jan. 19, 2001, UC-Davis, Calif.
Asian Americans on campus have said they are living in fear after being the
target of verbal and physical assaults. In once incident, a dozen Caucasian
students attacked five Korean students. Two people were arrested, but incidents
have continued. (KCRA On-Line, Sacramento, Jan. 19, 2001)
Jan. 22, 2001, Santa Ana, Calif.
Jeffrey Stuart Martin, 25, was sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison
for stabbing a black teen-ager in 1996.
Jan. 25, 2001, Washington,
D.C.
Police arrested a 17-year-old in a gay-bashing incident in the DuPont Circle
area after the youth and another young man followed two men leaving a gay bar
while shouting anti-gay names at them. After attacking the victims, the youths
fled when passersby said they had called the police. One perpetrator was later
apprehended. (The Washington Blade, Feb. 2, 2001)
Jan. 28, 2001, Cary, N.C.
Andre James Reaume, 22, was charged with a hate crime for allegedly taking an
8-year-old’s scooter because the child is black.
Feb. 1, 2001, Lewiston, Idaho
Trevor D. Cheff, 33, was charged with aggravated battery for allegedly stabbing
a black man during a traffic altercation.
Feb. 2, 2001, Madison, Wis.
Ying Vang, 23, Kao Vue, 24, and John Yang, 20, were convicted of battery as
a hate crime for beating a black student at a local university.
Feb. 3, 2001, Vancouver, Wash.
Four white men allegedly assaulted a 34-year-old black man.
Feb. 5, 2001, San Bernardino,
Calif.
Catzrina Tatum, a 25-year-old black woman, was charged with suspicion of a hate
crime for allegedly assaulting a white woman because of the woman’s ethnicity.
Feb. 11, 2001, Reno, Nev.
Dustin Abbey, 18, brothers Kevin, 19, and Craig Pennington, 20, were arrested
for allegedly attacking an interracial couple.
Feb. 11, 2001, Rifle, Colo.
Kyle Skyock, a slightly built 16-year-old, was found unconscious by a jogger
on the side of the road after being beaten by four teen-age boys because they
thought he was gay, he said. Skyock’s injuries included: large purple bruises
on the front and back of his head, a fractured skull, a circle of burn blisters
on his shoulder, a black eye, three broken ribs, a foot-shaped bruise on his
stomach and another bruise described by doctors as in the shape of a two-by-four.
Skyock claims to have left a party with the four boys in a four-wheel-drive
vehicle. Eventually, the car stopped, Skyock said, and he was pulled from vehicle
and thrown to the ground, and the boys started kicking him. They picked him
up, ramming his head into the tailgate. They threw him back in the vehicle and
punched him some more. They pulled him out and kicked him again. “Faggot” “I
want a turn with the bat! Give it to me. It’s my turn, it’s my turn,” he said
he heard. Police initially have said they believe that Skyock was drunk, and
his injuries were a result of falling down. Skyock’s family has been critical
of how the police have handled the case and has said that after the incident
one of the alleged perpetrators reportedly bragged on the school bus that he
had beaten up a “fag.” After seven months, police finally interviewed Skyock
after his family hired an attorney to pursue charges being filed against the
alleged perpetrators. Previously, they refused to talk to him because they said
his mother insisted on having an adult present with him. To date, no charges
have been filed, and the family has filed a civil case against the alleged perpetrators.
(Rocky Mountain News, Aug. 27, 30, 2001)
Feb. 20, 2001, Salem, W.Va.
A Japanese student at Salem International was beaten on campus in an alleged
racially motivated attack. William Joseph Shumate, 23, was charged with one
count of malicious wounding and one count of violating an individual’s civil
rights in connection with the incident.
Feb. 24, 2001, Bayside, N.Y.
Twelve white men allegedly beat, kicked and pistol-whipped a young black man.
Feb. 25, 2001, Queens, N.Y.
Giuseppe Gigliotti, 20, and Angelo Gigliotti, 18, were charged with a hate crime
for allegedly pistol-whipping and robbing a black man.
Feb. 25, 2001, Anchorage, Alaska
Police seized a video of three white teen-agers assaulting Native Alaskans with
a paintball gun from a car on downtown streets. The 24-minute video shows male
and female victims flinching as they were hit by what police say were marble-sized,
frozen paintballs. The victims shielded their faces after being struck at close
range while the teen-agers laughed. “Shoot him! Shoot him!” one suspect urged.
“You need to shoot that guy.” "No,” another teen answered, "He’s Chinese.” Neo-Nazi
groups active in Alaska, including the militant National Alliance, have been
trying to capitalize on the incident to recruit new members to their cause.
Press reports quote one local hate group leader as saying, “The timing was good
with heightened racial concerns arising from the January incident.” (TheAssociated
Press, Feb. 25, 2001; Anchorage Daily News, July 2, 2001)
Feb. 28, 2001, Standish, Maine
Jason Leblanc, 21, was charged with aggravated assault for allegedly attacking
a Latino man.
March 4, 2001, Houston
Police found the body of Francisco Javier Luna in the parking lot of a downtown
business. The victim suffered several gunshot wounds to the face, stomach and
shoulder. Luna was dressed as a woman at the time of his murder, was wearing
make-up and a brown lady’s wig was found near his body. (KPRC Houston.com, March
5, 2001)
March 5, 2001, Riverside, Calif.
Kenny James Vierra, 21, was sentenced to six years in prison for an October
2000 attack on a man he believed to be Mexican.
March 6, 2001, Middleburg,
Pa.
Two brothers, Todd Justin Clinger, 20, and Troy Lee Clinger, 18, were charged
with attempted homicide after severely beating a neighbor, Michael Aucker, 41.
Police allege that one of the brothers, Troy, said that Aucker tried to kiss
and hug both of them while the trio drank beer in their trailer. Police said
they walked out on the deck, where the brothers allegedly punched and stomped
on Aucker with heavy work boots several times before taking the bleeding Aucker
to his nearby trailer. Aucker was discovered a day and a half later by a neighbor
and co-worker. He remained in a coma and every bone in his face and nose were
broken, according to press reports. (Sunbury Daily Item, March 14, 2001)
March 8, 2001, South Kingstown,
R.I.
Three men allegedly attacked a gay man while using an anti-gay epithet.
March 12, 2001, Huntington,
N.Y.
A white male, Michael Taffinder, 31, was charged with murder for allegedly shooting
a black cab driver.
March 15, 2001, Merced, Calif.
Gregory Lee Claunch Jr., 37, a reputed member of the white supremacist Nazi
Low Riders gang was charged with a hate crime for allegedly stabbing a black
man because of his skin color.
March 16, 2001, Sparks, Nev.
Two Muslim men were injured, one critically, when they were attacked outside
a mosque in what police called a possible hate crime. Two white men in their
teens or early 20s struck the victims with a baseball bat following prayers
at the Northern Nevada Muslim Community Center. (The Associated Press, March
17, 2001)
March 20, 2001, New Orleans
A robbery attempt of a gay-male couple resulted in one man dead and the other
critically wounded by gunshot wounds. Neighbors and local business owners in
the gay-friendly area suspected anti-gay hate as a motive and have voiced concern
about rising crime in the area. One owner said that he has heard that police
have asked residents to keep the crime rise quiet so as not to scare anyone.
(Southern Voice, March 29, 2001)
March 20, 2001, Ventura, Calif.
Four to five Skinheads allegedly assaulted a 22-year-old man because they believed
that he was Mexican.
March 21, 2001, Long Beach,
Calif.
Alberto Gomez, 23, was sentenced to 47 years to life in prison and Alfredo Figueroa,
26, was sentenced to 78 years to life for the January murder of a 14-year-old
Cambodian skater.
March 22, 2001, Los Angeles
James Allen Gamache, 33, a self-proclaimed white supremacist gang member, was
sentenced to 230 years in prison for allegedly shooting at police officers during
a car chase in May.
March 24, 2001, Elmhurst, Ill.
Thomas Bengsten, 21, was charged with two counts of hate crime and two counts
of aggravated battery for allegedly striking two men with a club during a racially
motivated dispute.
March 29, 2001, Lake Charles,
La.
Two 18-year-old white men, Tommy Lee Foreman and Clinton Goines, were charged
with a hate crime for allegedly beating a black man who asked them for a ride.
March 30, 2001, Seattle
Police asked prosecutors to consider hate crimes charges against a black teen
who is accused of beating up and robbing whites during Mardi Gras. The perpetrator
allegedly told police he believed he was in the middle of a “racial war.” (Seattle
Times, March 30, 2001)
April 1, 2001, Beverly, Mass.
Jonathan Silveira, 17, was charged with assault for allegedly assaulting a man
he believed was homosexual.
April 4, 2001, San Francisco
Lavonne Adams, 42, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and felony assault
with a hate crime enhancement for allegedly kicking a white woman using a walker
who fell, broke her hip and later died.
April 4, 2001, San Jose, Calif.
Lorena E. Sanders, a 22-year-old black woman, was charged with battery and a
hate crime for allegedly assaulting and threatening a couple during a traffic
dispute because of their ethnicity.
April 4, 2001, Tampa, Fla.
Two black youths, Telly S. Warren, 14, and James Taylor, 17, were charged with
aggravated battery with a deadly weapon for allegedly throwing a deadly missile
into a vehicle occupied by white passengers.
April 5, 2001, Bloomington,
Minn.
Cecil John Reiners, 57, was convicted of felony first-degree assault for allegedly
attacking a Hispanic man for speaking Spanish at work. Witnesses told police
that Reiners, the business owner, was upset when the 23-year-old employee was
speaking Spanish with two others at a break table and told him, “We don’t speak
Spanish here.” Reiners went to the warehouse with a wood post and severely beat
the victim, who was treated for severe skull fractures and clots at the hospital.
“All I wanted was for that Mexican to leave my property,” Reiner said. (WCCO.com,
Nov. 17, 2000, The Associated Press, April 7, 2001.)
April 6, 2001, Gurnee, Ill.
Matthew Braakman, 17, was sentenced to two years in prison for attacking a black
teen at a party in January.
April 12, 2001, Cincinnati
Several criminal charges, some involving bias, have been filed during and after
riots in black neighborhoods of the city, following the fatal shooting by police
of an unarmed black man. Prosecutors also examined subpoenaed television tapes
to identify black youths who pulled a white trucker from his cab and beat him.
One black teen-ager has been charged with a hate crime in that incident for
allegedly targeting the victim because of race. The victim said the perpetrators
were shouting “Kill Whitey” as they beat him. Previously, the county prosecutor
had announced 63 indictments on charges committed during the riots, some of
which would also likely be charged with hate crimes if evidence was obtained
that the offenses were committed to intimidate based on race, the prosecutor
said. All but one of those defendants was black. (The Associated Press, April
24, 2001)
April 13, 2001, San Antonio,
Texas
A 39-year-old man was attacked because he was thought to be a homosexual, police
said. The victim had stopped in a park to look at some rocks when a man with
a knife came up behind him. The man held the victim in a bear-hug before stabbing
him in the chest with a knife which he described as a three-inch Buck knife.
The suspect allegedly called him anti-gay names as he stabbed him. (KSAT San
Antonio, April 13, 2001)
April 15, 2001, Baton Rouge,
La.
Two men allegedly taunted and attacked four lesbian students outside the gay-friendly
Cybercafe restaurant near Louisiana State University. The four women alleged
that two men approached them and repeatedly asked them if they were “boys or
girls.” The women also allege that one of the perpetrators threw a drink in
one of women’s faces and called her a “dyke.” Tommy Lott, 36, of Livingston,
was charged with three counts of simple battery. Michael Holderman, 19, of Livingston,
was also charged with one count of simple battery, but the charge was dismissed
after he completed a pre-trial program. One of the victims, Regan Ilgenfritz,
22, was charged with one count of simple battery and one count of destruction
of property related to Lott’s broken glasses. She claims she was defending herself
and that Lott punched her repeatedly when she was trying to protect her girlfriend.
Police said that anti-gay slurs are protected speech, and that the perpetrators
have said that the women were the first to use physical force. (Southern Voice,
Aug. 30, 2001)
April 16, 2001, Albuquerque,
N.M.
Joaquin Salazar, 18, was sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to attend
an anger management course and to perform 40 hours of community service with
a local immigrant rights group for beating a Mexican student unconscious in
December 1999.
April 19, 2001, Springfield,
Ill.
Robert Underwood, 17, was charged with a hate crime, aggravated battery and
criminal damage to property after he allegedly chased a black motorist and rammed
his car while screaming racial slurs.
April 20, 2001, Rancho Cucamonga,
Calif.
Daniel Landry, 32, a reputed member of the Nazi Low Riders was convicted of
murder and assault for stabbing an inmate in prison in 1997.
April 20, 2001, Brighton, Mich.
Jasen Garrett Barker, 22, was charged with assault with intent to do bodily
harm and two counts of assault and battery and Travis Sales, 21, was charged
with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of ethnic intimidation
for allegedly assaulting and yelling racial slurs at a black state trooper who
was dancing with a white woman.
April 26, 2001, Los Angeles
Adam Guerrero, 23, was charged with misdemeanor counts of committing a hate
crime, battery on a peace officer and assault on a peace officer for allegedly
throwing food and shouting obscenities and racial slurs at a black traffic officer
who was writing a parking ticket outside the man’s fraternity house.
April 26, 2001, Bartlett, Ill.
Six white men allegedly yelled racial slurs and assaulted a black man.
April 27, 2001, Kent State
University, Ohio
Mikell Nagy, an openly gay university student, was eating breakfast with friends
when he heard someone make an anti-gay comment toward another friend across
the room. He went over to see if the friend was okay. The next thing he knew,
a man walked up behind him, called him a “faggot” and punched him in the face.
According to witnesses, blood was pouring from cuts above his left eye. His
two front teeth were chipped in the incident and his right cheek stayed swollen
for more than a week, according to news reports. The incident resulted in an
on-campus rally against hate crimes. (WEWS NewNet5, April 27, 2001; Cleveland
Plain Dealer, April 28, 2001)
April 27, 2001, San Francisco
Don Henning, an attorney, allegedly attacked Rabbi Bentzion Pil, 42, a Hasidic
Jew, and Michael Medvedev, 28, a Russian immigrant member of his congregation
after the lawyer hurled anti-Semitic slurs at the two men and called them “Palestinian
killers.” The perpetrator became enraged when the Rabbi said that the Jews were
“peaceful people,” spit at them and then rushed the two men, punching Medvedev
in the face and breaking his ribs. Though the victims were much smaller than
the close to 7-foot tall assailant, they were able to wrestle him to the ground
and detain him until police arrived. (San Francisco Examiner, July 17, 2001)
April 27, 2001, Delray Beach,
Fla.
Crystal Monique Thomas, 19, and Crystal Antoinette Adams, 20, were charged with
battery for allegedly yelling racial slurs at a white woman. Thomas was also
charged with a hate crime for slapping the woman and calling her a “stupid white
bitch.”
May 1, 2001, Los Angeles
Justin Merriman, a 28-year-old Skinhead gang member, was sentenced to death
for the 1992 murder of a college student from Santa Monica.
May 3, 2001, Los Angeles
In an apparent hate crime, Carlos Garcia, who is Hispanic, allegedly shot and
critically wounded a man after telling him “he did not like black men associating
with Hispanic women,” according to police. The gunman hijacked a bus and caused
a deadly crash as he was fleeing from police. (The Associated Press, May 3,
2001)
May 10, 2001, North Richland
Hills, Texas
David Israel Avery, 17, has been charged with criminal mischief for allegedly
attacking two gay teens.
May 13, 2001, San Luis Obispo,
Calif.
Two men allegedly assaulted a Jewish student after he questioned them about
derogatory comments they made about Israelis.
May 18, 2001, St. Lucie, Fla.
Three black males in a racially motivated attack allegedly beat a white high
school student.
May 19, 2001, Fargo, N.D.
Robert Chris Schussler, 43, Thomas Arnold Schussler, 20, and Angela Marie Schussler,
18, allegedly assaulted a Sudanese refugee.
May 21, 2001, York, Pa.
Thomas P. Smith, 50, was charged with killing a black woman in 1969.
May 23, 2001, Montgomery County,
Md.
Robert Lucas, the defendant in the murder of a local priest, Monsignor Thomas
Wells, alleged that he murdered the victim in a “killing rage” after the victim
was sexually aggressive toward him, which resulted in his feeling “anger, shame
and humiliation.” The victim bled to death as a result of stab wounds. (The
Washington Post, May 23, 2001)
May 25, 2001, Honolulu
Two teens were charged with attempted murder after allegedly dousing the tents
of gay campers, while people were inside, with flammable liquid and setting
one on fire in Polihale State Park. Police believe the crime is a hate crime
based on “insinuations and remarks” made by the suspects at the time. Victims
in the attack said the perpetrators threw rocks and shouted homosexual slurs
at about 20 men prior to setting the tent on fire. Two men, Eamonn Carolan,
18, and Orien Macomber, 19, were sentenced to five years in prison each. According
to press reports, the sentences could be boiled down to a year and half each.
(The Associated Press, June 2, 2001; KITV TheHawaiiChannel.com, June 1, 2001;
Kauai World, Jan. 21, 2002)
May 26, 2001, Manteca, Calif.
Linell Reese, 20, was charged with a hate crime for allegedly attacking a man
while yelling anti-gay epithets.
May 26, 2001, Ft. Pierce, Fla.
A black teen was arrested and charged with aggravated battery with evidence
of prejudice for allegedly beating a white student in a racially motivated incident.
May 30, 2001, New York
Authorities arrested Richard Rogers, 50, a man they think may be a serial killer
responsible for killing up to five gay and bisexual men in the early 1990s based
on fingerprints found on plastic bags used to dispose of dismembered bodies.
Most of the victims were between the ages of 44 and 55 and were last seen at
gay bars in Manhattan. (The New York Times, May 30, 2001)
May 30, 2001, Spokane, Wash.
The third of three defendants pleaded guilty to kidnapping, rape and witness
intimidation after prosecutors showed how they had targeted three teen-age Japanese
girls for sexual assault. The victims were kidnapped from a bus stop, handcuffed,
blindfolded and raped repeatedly for over seven hours while the assaults were
videotaped. The victims were told that if they told anyone, the videos would
be sent to their fathers. One of the perpetrators testified that the primary
perpetrator was fascinated with Japanese culture and targeted the Japanese students
because he believed they would be too submissive, afraid and ashamed to report
the assaults. The perpetrators had tried to abduct Japanese female students
on two other occasions. (Seattle Times, May 31, 2001)
May 31, 2001, Bayside, N.Y.
Benny Loria, a 17-year-old white man, was charged with several counts of assault,
menacing and criminal possession of a weapon for allegedly assaulting a black
man.
June 1, 2001, Modesto, Calif.
The home of an inter-racial couple and the couple’s two children were threatened
when someone threw a Molotov cocktail at the couple’s home. Police believe it
was a hate crime, citing other evidence such as watermelon thrown on the driveway,
a box of grits, a frozen bag of black-eyed peas and a 40-oz. King Cobra beer.
(TheKCRAChannel.com, June 2, 2001)
June 5, 2001, El Monte, Calif.
Three suspected Latino gang members were accused of a hate crime after allegedly
beating an African-American teen at a party and using racial epithets. The teen,
who was dancing with a Latina at the time of the attack, suffered cuts to the
mouth; and a friend who came to his aid received abrasions to the face. One
of the assailants fired a gun into the air, and they yelled the name of the
gang as he fled the party. (MediaNews Group, June 7, 2001)
June 6, 2001, Chicago
A young Chicago man is accusing police of ignoring his pleas for help after
a gay-bashing incident in May that ended with his being criminally charged.
Benjamin Stephens, a 21-year-old from the north side, said he was out to dinner
with a friend when three men lured him from the restaurant, beat him and called
him "faggot.” A stranger saw the incident and drove him to the police station,
where he said officers refused to help find the men who had attacked him. Stephens
said he became angry, and officers arrested him, hit and shoved him around.
The incident comes on top of a suit filed earlier this year by a man who says
he was beaten by several off-duty Chicago police officers because they mistakenly
thought he was gay. An Amnesty International report released earlier this year
titled, “Allegations of Homophobic Abuse by Chicago Police Officers,” alleges
a series of anti-gay incidents, involving abuse and torture by Chicago police
over the past few years. (Windy City Times, June 6, 2001; Chicago Tribune, Jan.
12, 2001; www. Amnesty.org, June 5, 2001)
June 7, 2001, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Manuel Rivera, 17, and a 14-year-old were charged with assault for allegedly
attacking a Pakistani teen because of his ethnicity.
June 9, 2001, Old Orchard Beach,
Maine
Michel Rancourt, 19, and Richard Lamotch, 21, were charged with aggravated assault
for attacking a black man.
June 9, 2001, Washington, D.C.
Alexander Gray, 22, was reportedly jumped and beaten by a group of men who called
him “faggot” hours before he was fatally shot by a District police officer.
Police are calling the beating a probable hate crime and have identified several
suspects. Emergency medical technicians and police reportedly found Gray laying
on the sidewalk crying in southeast Washington in response to a call. Gray told
them about the attack. Gray, who had a cut over his eye and a gash on his head,
refused medical treatment and an offer to be taken to the hospital for observation.
Gray was reportedly handcuffed and placed in a police car after he began cursing
officers and threatened to assault several bystanders. Police drove him home,
but Gray stopped by a neighbor’s house after being dropped off. The neighbor
called 911after Gray began spitting up blood. EMT’s responded and again examined
him; again, he refused treatment and said “all he wanted to do was go home and
lie down.” He reportedly started walking home but was soon being followed by
two police officers, who told him he was not dressed appropriately, as his pants
were torn, possibly due to the assault, and his underwear was exposed. He began
to jog; the officers chased him and later shot him because they said he was
wielding a knife at some people who were playing dice. Witnesses say they never
saw a knife. Police have launched an investigation into the shooting, and the
U.S. Attorney’s office has convened a grand jury to look at the shooting. (Washington
Blade, June 29, July 6, Dec. 21, 2001)
June 10, 2001, Hamilton Square,
N.J.
Michael Marlin, 20, and Richard Gutch, 19, were charged with bias assault for
allegedly attacking three black youths.
June 13, 2001, Naples, Fla.
A white man allegedly used racial slurs and broke a 16-year-old black youth’s
jaw.
June 15, 2001, Alfred, Maine
Robert Kalex, 36, was sentenced to four months in jail for terrorizing a black
man in July 2000.
June 17, 2001, Augusta, Ga.
Six white men allegedly assaulted a black man while yelling racial epithets.
June 17, 2001, St. Peters,
Mo.
James D. Brock, 21, was charged with third-degree assault motivated by race
for allegedly pouring beer on a black youth. Timothy Lee, 18, was charged with
first-degree property damage motivated by race for allegedly damaging a Hispanic
person’s car.
June 17, 2001, Springfield,
Mo.
A stabbing at a local diner appears to be racially motivated according to police.
A black man, Maurice Wilson, was stabbed three times by one of six men whom
witnesses described as skinheads and white supremacists. The suspects also had
swastika tattoos and Aryan Nations T-shirts. The victim had walked into the
diner with his girlfriend who is white and another interracial couple, police
said. A fight ensued when the victim confronted one of the men in the group.
During the fight, one of the men pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim.
(Jefferson City News Tribune On-Line,
June 19, 2001, Medford, Ore.
Keith A. Hollensbe, 20, was charged with third-degree assault and first-degree
intimidation for allegedly assaulting a Hispanic man while yelling “white power.”
June 20, 2001, Albany, N.Y.
Three teens were charged by a grand jury Tuesday with a hate crime in connection
with the beating of a man on the Cohoes bike path. The incident occurred June
20 at about 10 p.m. when the trio allegedly called a 24-year-old Cohoes man
a derogatory name and assaulted him, District Attorney Paul A. Clyne said. “He
was sitting on a bench minding his own business and these three guys came by
and called him names and started beating him about the head and neck with their
fists,” Clyne said. “He managed to run away at some point and promptly reported
it to police.” The man was treated for bruises and pain by emergency medical
technicians, Clyne said. The suspects, Marquis Turner, 18, and Anthony Ward,
16, both of Griswold Heights Apartments in Troy, and Michael Ward, 19, of 23
Division St., Cohoes, were initially charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor.
The suspects are free pending arraignment in county court Friday. The grand
jury elevated the charge to third-degree assault as a hate crime, making it
a Class E felony which carries a maximum sentence of 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison.
“It appears this person was targeted solely upon a belief or perception that
he was a homosexual,” Clyne said. (The Times-Union, Aug. 29, 2001)
June 21, 2001, Cortez, Colo.
The body of an openly gay, transgender, half-Navajo teen, Fred Martinez Jr.,
16, was found south of Cortez, Colo., five days after he left home to go to
a carnival. Police have arrested another teen in the murder and are investigating
whether the homicide was a hate crime based on sexual orientation or race. The
perpetrator allegedly bragged that he “beat up a fag.” Martinez often curled
his hair, plucked his eyebrows, wore makeup and toted a purse to school. His
mother told the press that she firmly believes her son’s slaying was a hate
crime based on his gender identity or because he was transgender. (Rocky Mountain
News, July 3, 200; Cortez Journal On-Line, June 28, 2001; Denver Post, July
19, 2001)
June 25, 2001, Annapolis, Md.
A black teen-ager allegedly taunted a white woman and her daughter with a racial
slur and punched them in the head.
June 25, 2001, Madison, Wis.
Two Asian men in two separate incidents allegedly stabbed three black men. Tenzin
Khetsun, 21, and Tenzin Khedup, 19, were charged with attempted homicide and
disorderly conduct while armed for allegedly stabbing one of the men.
June 28, 2001, Toms River,
N.J.
James L. Holmes was charged with bias aggravated assault after he allegedly
pointed a knife and shouted expletives and a racial epithet at an Asian worker
in November.
June 29, 2001, Wichita, Kan.
A 58-year-old openly gay Wichita, Kan., hairdresser, Marcell Eads, was beaten
and died from burns and smoke inhalation after the alleged bashers set his home
on fire. Zachary Steward, 18, and Brandon Boone, 17, were arrested and a district
court judge ruled there was enough evidence to charge the two with first-degree
murder, aggravated arson, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery. According
to police detective Blake Mumma, Steward gave a statement in which he said that
Eads had made sexual advances toward him, prompting Boone to start beating Eads
with a broomstick and later with the end of a table and a rock. Steward also
admitted to striking Eads, Mumma said. The alleged perpetrators also accused
each other of setting the fire that killed Eads, and both took credit for trying
to put out the fire. Trial was set for Oct. 8. Testimony showed that sex and
sexual orientation appeared to be key factors in the motive. (The Associated
Press State & Local Wire, Aug. 22, 2001)
June 30, 2001, Las Vegas, Nev.
In Las Vegas, Jerry Lee Stamper-Ousley, 24, was found beaten to death inside
his apartment complex. The victim had frequented a gay bar earlier that evening
and died from blunt force trauma to the head. Police have no leads in the case,
no suspects and have made no arrests. Investigators believe robbery may be the
motive, but they have not ruled out a possible hate crime. (Las Vegas Review
Journal, July 1, 2001)
July 1, 2001, Fond du Lac,
Wis.
A 29-year-old man was accused of a hate crime after witnesses say he drove his
truck in a threatening manner toward a group of black people picnicking along
the Fond du Lac River. The vehicle came within 2 feet of young children standing
near a grill. The driver, who had been making derogatory remarks about the picnickers
earlier, was shouting “white power” and racial slurs at the group. Tire tracks
from the truck appeared to have left the road and ripped up 25 yards of grass
an observer said. The driver denied driving into the crowd and said one of them
had “started it” by shouting something about the Confederate flag on his truck.
(The Reporter, Wisinfo.com, July 4, 2001)
July 3, 2001, Rifle, Colo.
Four people were killed and three others wounded in a shooting rampage near
and in a trailer park in which a man had bragged to friends earlier in the day
that he was going to shoot some people and himself. Police know of no motive
and are investigating whether the incidents were racially motivated since the
perpetrator was white and all of the victims were Hispanic. (The Associated
Press, July 5, 2001)
July 3, 2001, Wichita Falls,
Texas
John Turnbow, 28, was convicted of shooting Zacchaeus Field to death in October
1998. Turnbow, who once admitted he belonged to a white supremacist group but
later recanted, shot Field as he was walking down the street because he thought
he was the same black man who was dating the ex-wife of a friend. He said he
mistook Field for the other black man. (The Associated Press, July 3, 2001)
July 4, 2001, Waco, Texas
Two men were arrested in connection with the stabbing of five youths on the
Waco Suspension Bridge during Fourth of July festivities. One of the perpetrators
had tattoos linked to white supremacist groups, and police are investigating
whether racial bias played a part in the stabbings. Both suspects were white
and all of the victims were black. (WacoTrib.com, July 17, 2001)
July 6, 2001, Monmouth County,
N.J.
Seven people were sentenced on multiple counts, including aggravated assault
and harassment by bias intimidation under the state law for assaulting a 23-year-old
learning disabled man with hearing and speech impediments. The victim was lured
to a party, bound, and physically and verbally assaulted for three hours. Later,
he was taken to a wooded area where the torture continued until he was able
to escape. (New Jersey Lawyer, Aug. 7, 2000; Statement from Executive Director
of The ARC of New Jersey, July 6, 2001)
July 6, 2001, Grand Junction,
Colo.
The stabbing death of Eric Valdez, 19, may be prosecuted in part as a hate crime,
a county prosecutor said. After the alleged assailant, Sjon Elmgreen, 19, stabbed
Valdez on a downtown street corner, he stood over him and yelled a racial and
sexual epithet. The stabbing followed a fight in which Elmgreen’s fiancee and
a friend called him from a grocery store after two Hispanic teen-agers began
flirting with them. The fiancee told officers that the teens were not being
rude or threatening, but she had told Elmgreen that they were being harassed.
Elmgreen and his roommate walked from their home a few blocks away to confront
the teens. The women told police that yelling turned to fist fighting, after
which Elmgreen pulled a knife and Valdez was stabbed. (Rocky Mountain News,
July 11, 2001)
July 6, 2001, Sacramento, Calif.
A jury convicted Joshua Mark Gilmore, 25, a white supremacist, of five felonies
for several hate-related attacks. Among other things, Gilmore, who is covered
in neo-Nazi tattoos, was charged in the beating death of a 16-year-old whom
he left for dead in a church parking lot in 1997 and an attack four-months later
on a 22-year-old who was stabbed 20 times and lost part of his right lung. A
special task force that included the FBI, along with county and state law enforcement
officers, arrested Gilmore. (Scripps-McClatchy News Service, July 6, 2001)
July 9, 2001, Santa Clarita
Valley, Calif.
An 18-year-old member of a reputed teen-age white supremacist gang accused of
terrorizing a Canyon Country neighborhood pleaded guilty to charges of stalking
a bus driver. The teen was one of several “skinheads” arrested during a police
sweep in May for alleged stalking, burglarizing cars, setting off small explosives
and vandalizing the neighborhood. (Los Angeles Times, Valley Edition, July 10,
2001)
July 9, 2001, Charles Town,
W.Va.
Brian K. Hanna, 27, was sentenced to six years in jail for misdemeanor assault
and one felony count of wanton endangerment for his part in a hate crime in
September 2000. The incident involved Derrick Berry, a black man, who was leaving
a gas station when two tow trucks blocked his way. A man stepped out of the
truck, approached the car and pointed a gun at another person in the car. The
man then reportedly pointed the gun at Berry and fired it into the air. (Dominion
Post, July 11, 2001)
July 9, 2001, Cypress, Calif.
Keith Ryan Leombruno was sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in
the 1998 stabbings and beatings of three Latinos. Vincent James Putzie was sentenced
to three years and Kevin Kearney was sentenced to five years and eight months
for their roles in the attacks.
July 10, 2001, Tucson, Ariz.
Franchot Opela, 27, was sentenced to a year of unsupervised probation and ordered
to perform 40 hours of community service and undergo eight hours of anger counseling,
plus attend sensitivity training before the year’s end, for beating a man because
of his sexual orientation in February 2000 outside of a bar. Opela is a paramedic
with the Tucson Fire Department. The victim, Fabian Padilla, 23, is suing Opela
and the bar. According to the suit, he was singled out because he was perceived
to be gay and was severely beaten by Opela who called him “faggot” as he beat
him to the ground with both fists. Opela fled after the assault, according to
witnesses. Padilla was left lying on the sidewalk bleeding from his head and
was treated for severe eye and head injuries. (Tucson Citizen, Feb. 7, 2002)
July 11, 2001, Port Hueneme,
Calif.
Joshua Brunkhurst, 18, Michael Keaser, 23, James Smiley, 24, and Christopher
Wallace, 18, were arrested after they allegedly attacked two people, one of
whom was of Filipino descent, in what authorities described as a racially motivated
hate crime.
July 16, 2001, Newmarket, N.H.
Thung Phetakoune, 62, of man of Laotian decent, died of injuries he suffered
in an attack that may have been motivated by racial hatred. Richard Labbe, 35,
has been charged with second-degree assault in the incident. According to authorities,
Labbe shoved the victim amid an alcohol-fueled anti-Asian tirade apparently
stemming from the deaths of two relatives in the Vietnam War. Ironically, Phetakoune
had fought in the war with the Americans. He died from injuries stemming from
a fractured skull, subsurface bleeding and swelling of the brain. (Foster’s
Online, July 21, 2001;Union Leader, July 17, 20, 2001)
July 16, 2001, Billings, Mont.
Chris Lehman, 23, said he was wrongly labeled a skinhead as he pleaded guilty
to a hate crime. He admitted he shot 44-year-old Roderick Pierson in the groin
with a BB gun because Pierson is black. He also pleaded guilty to felony criminal
endangerment of Pierson’s 6-year-old daughter, who was walking with her father
when he was shot Oct. 14, 2000. (BillingsGazette.com, July 17, 2001)
July 18, 2001 Americus, Ga.
Van Deventer was sentenced to one month in jail and 11 months of probation and
ordered to pay a $600 fine, serve 40 hours of community service, take anger
management classes and give $1,900 to a gay woman Deventer attacked in October
2000.
July 20, 2001, Cullman, Ala.
Three white men were charged in an alleged attack on two black men whose car
they smashed in with baseball bats and cut a racial slur into the side. The
victims were allegedly attack after they arrived at a party at a barn. They
fled on foot when their car got stuck, and the attackers then smashed the car.
The FBI is investigating it as a possible hate crime, according to press reports.
(The Associated Press, Aug. 28, 2001)
July 22, 2001, Pleasanton,
Calif.
Two men Kenny Loveless and Travis Gossage, both 21, were charged with a felony
battery after an assault on an Afghani cab driver that police are labeling a
hate crime. The suspects first asked the driver to take them to a strip club;
then each demanded that he “find me a woman.” Instead, he drove them back to
the hotel where he had picked them up. The two began yelling Latino racial epithets
at him, police said. At the hotel, they struck the outside of his cab. When
he stepped out to check for damage, they attacked him and continued yelling
racial epithets. (Contra Costa Times, July 27, 2001)
July 23, 2001, Thibodaux, La.
Two teens, Jamie Danos and Blake Bebert, both 17, were arrested and charged
for aggravated battery in what police called a hate crime following an incident
where they allegedly shot a black woman in the face with a paintball gun outside
her home. The woman and her husband were walking through their yard when they
heard “muffled gunshots” before the woman clutched her face and realized she
had been shot with a paintball. She was treated at a local hospital for swelling
under her eye. The two suspects had allegedly made several comments about “wanting
to shoot black people.” (Daily Comet, Sept. 5, 2001)
July 24, 2001, Greeley, Colo.
Salvador Rivera, 24, was sentenced to 45 days in jail on work release, placed
on two years of unsupervised probation and ordered to pay court costs and restitution
for allegedly beating his gay cousin in October.
July 26, 2001, Ketchikan, Alaska
David Blair, also known as Steve Perry, 35, was found dead by the Ketchikan
Police Department. Blair was an openly gay Alaskan Native from the Organized
Village of Saxman. Terry L. Simpson Jr., 19, and Joshua A. Anderson, 20, have
been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, first-degree
robbery and second-degree theft. They are being held on $50,000 bail. Police
arrested Simpson and Anderson in response to a tip called in to Ketchikan Crime
Stoppers, according to news reports. Originally, though he later reportedly
recanted, the caller said he overheard the two men bragging that they were planning
to “beat up and rob [Blair] because he is a fag,” said Ketchikan District Attorney
Stephen West. If Blair’s murder is an anti-gay hate crime, the district attorney’s
office can do no more than it is doing now because the state’s hate crimes law
does not include sexual orientation, West noted. (Ketchikan Daily News, July
27, 2001, Interviews with Ketchikan District Attorney)
July 29, 2001, Nashville, Tenn.
Willie Houston, 38, was fatally shot in the chest in Nashville, Tenn., after
the alleged gunman, Lewis Maynard Davidson III, 25, taunted him with anti-gay
epithets. Houston had just finished a midnight riverboat cruise with his fiancee,
Nedra Jones, and friends. Houston escorted a blind male friend by the arm into
a restroom while holding Jones’ purse. Inside the restroom, the gunman allegedly
hurled anti-gay insults at the friends. He followed them out of the restroom
while continuing his verbal harassment. Davidson then allegedly returned to
his car where he retrieved a gun and said, “Now what you got to say?” before
firing the weapon at Houston. Police are searching for Davidson and have yet
to officially call it a hate crime, saying the investigation is “still very
much open.” While the victim is reportedly not gay, Tennessee hate crime laws
cover violence based on real or perceived sexual orientation. (The Tennessean,
Aug. 1, 2001)
July 30, 2001, Tempe, Ariz.
A man in an emergency room allegedly attacked a doctor of Pakistani descent
who was treating him.
July 30, 2001, Laguna Hills,
Calif.
Christopher C. Hearn, 20, was charged with first-degree murder with two special
circumstances, lying in wait and killing because of ethnicity, for allegedly
stabbing to death an Asian teen-ager.
July 31, 2001, Browns Mills,
N.J.
Two white men attacked a black couple while they were sleeping in their home.
The men hit the couple with baseball bats in what police labeled a racially
motivated attack. Two suspects were charged with aggravated assault, burglary,
unlawful weapons possession and making terrorist threats in connection with
the attack. Police said that the suspects had told a neighbor of the victims
that they were going to beat up his neighbor, using a racial slur to describe
them. Police also found hate literature in one of the alleged perpetrators’
home. The victims were treated at a local hospital and released. The woman required
stitches to her head and was treated for a broken hand. The man was treated
for cuts. (The Trentonian, Aug. 2, 2001; The Associated Press, Sept. 26, 2001)
Aug. 1, 2001, Roanoke, Va.
Two men and the pastor of a predominantly gay church were attacked by three
men after a Bible study and prayer meeting, police and the pastor said. The
Rev. Catherine Houchins was struck in the face as she tried to call 911 on her
cellular phone after three men attacked her and her parishioners, Armen Grigoryan
and Richard Justus. “They were yelling [expletive] faggots, get out of town,”
Houchins said. The alleged attackers came out of an alley as the victims were
getting into their cars. The attackers knocked Grigoryan down to the ground
and punched Justus as he tried to help his friend. “They were in a total rage,”
said one witness. “I’ve never seen such rage in my life.” The perpetrators fled
when the witness intervened. Police responded to the 911 call and searched the
area for half an hour with no success. (The Associated Press, Aug. 3, 2001)
Aug. 3, 2001, Lawrence, Mass.
Three white men allegedly assaulted two Hispanic men while yelling racial slurs.
Aug. 7, 2001, Wyandanch, N.Y.
Jonathan McCloud, 20, Randy Gilbert, 17, and a 15-year-old were charged with
second-degree robbery, second-degree aggravated harassment and a hate crime
for the alleged attack and robbery of two Hispanic men.
Aug. 8, 2001, Annapolis, Md.
Three black teen-agers were charged with armed robbery and a hate crime in a
July 21 attack of a white woman, Tracy VanDagna, 22, which left her in need
of plastic surgery. One of the alleged perpetrators, Tacarra Tyler, 17, was
charged as an adult for violating a law against racial or religious harassment,
among other things. VanDagna was walking to her car when a man struck her in
the face with a rock, knocking her to the ground, then grabbed her hair and
pulled her head back while a boy run up and repeatedly kicked her in the face.
The victim suffered a broken nose and needed five stitches on her hand. Police
said that even after VanDagna turned over her backpack, the teen-agers continued
to attack her. One witness told investigators that the assailants said they
“beat up whites and Mexicans” because they don’t like them, according to police.
(Baltimore Sun, Aug. 8, 2001)
Aug. 13, 2001, Vancouver, Wash.
Brandon Ericson, 13, was sentenced to 60 days in the juvenile detention center,
with credit for 27 days served, and ordered to perform 32 hours of community
service in connection with a racially motivated assault on a black man.
Aug. 16, 2001, Lodi, Calif.
Fredrick Metcalf, 67, was arrested on assault and hate crime charges for allegedly
yelling a racial slur at a black woman who gave him a parking ticket.
Aug. 16, 2001, Manitowoc, Wis.
Four men and one woman, ages 21 to 25, were charged with plotting to hurt and
kill Asian people in July 1998, according to an indictment unsealed in federal
court. Two juveniles were also reportedly involved. The indictment alleges that
three of the perpetrators retrieved gasoline from a relative’s home on July
28 to use in setting an Asian family’s home ablaze. The three went that night
to the Manitowoc house where the Hmong family -- two parents and six children
-- lived and set it on fire. The house was destroyed and a firefighter suffered
bodily injury from smoke inhalation. On July 25, four of the alleged perpetrators
planned to use explosives to force Asians out of their home in nearby Two Rivers
and shoot them as they emerged. Five people in two cars drove around looking
for a house occupied by Asians, found one and parked. They tried to put the
explosives in the gas tank of a minivan parked in front of the house. The explosives
would not fit, so they put it under the van. Before the explosive went off,
a Two Rivers police car on routine patrol drove by, and the perpetrators fled.
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Aug. 17, 2001)
Aug. 18, 2001, Newhall, Calif.
Alex Garcia, 20, and Andres Herrera, 24, were charged with committing a hate
crime and making terrorist threats for allegedly assaulting a group of white
teen-agers in a car.
Aug. 18, 2001, Ithaca, N.Y.
Michael Palahicky, 20, was charged with harassment as a bias crime after he
allegedly punched a man and called him an anti-gay epithet.
Aug. 19, 2001, Pasadena, Calif.
Dixie Calene Granat, an 80-year-old white woman, pleaded innocent to felony
assault and intimidation charges for allegedly trying to run over a 15-year-old
black neighbor with her car. In complaining that her bail was excessive, Granat
said, “Why is my bail so high? You’d think I killed somebody. I haven’t killed
anyone, yet.” The alleged perpetrator had pleaded no contest to an earlier charge
for driving her vehicle in a threatening manner toward Salvador Reyes in March
2001. Byron Gaddis, Granat’s recent target, told investigators that he has known
the woman most of his life and cannot explain her actions. He said in July 2001,
she had chased him with a machete and yelled racial epithets. (The Associated
Press, State & Local Wire, Aug. 24, 2001)
Aug. 19, 2001, Reno, Nev.
Adam Ezerski was arrested by federal law enforcement in Reno on the eve of a
gay pride celebration for allegedly murdering a gay man in Florida. He had allegedly
strangled Anthony Martilotto, 39, to death on July 26. On Aug. 13, he allegedly
attacked Kevin Begoon in San Francisco and fled after striking Begoon in the
head with a plaster statute and trying to strangle him. The suspect’s brother
said that Ezerski was a “homophobic woman chaser.” (Bradenton Herald, Aug. 19,
2001)
Aug. 20, 2001, Madison, Wis.
Paul Murphy, 41-year-old white man was charged with two counts of recklessly
endangering safety while using a dangerous weapon and a misdemeanor penalty
enhancer for committing a hate crime after allegedly stabbing two black men.
Aug. 23, 2001, Shawano, Wis.
Grant Heim, 19, pleaded guilty to a hate crime after he and another man tried
to run an Asian couple off a road with a pickup truck in November 2000. The
two men pulled up behind the victim’s car at a high speed and forced the couple’s
car to swerve onto the shoulder. They then chased the couple and buzzed close
to the vehicle. Heim made racial slurs against the couple and was abusive to
police officers. In a separate case, Heim was charged in June 2001 after allegedly
taunting two campers at a music festival using racial slurs. (Green Bay Press
Gazette, Aug. 24, 2001)
Aug. 26, 2001, Las Cruces,
N.M.
Two New Mexico State University students were arrested in connection with the
beating of a fellow student after asking if he was gay. Campus police spokesman
Stephen Lopez said Rustin Short, 18, of Carlsbad, N.M., was arrested Thursday
morning. Austin Lanier, 18, also of Carlsbad, later turned himself in, Lopez
said. Both are freshmen who live on campus. The name of the victim has not been
released. Police say around the same time, three men followed another male student
into a female student’s room in the same dormitory and asked him more than once
if he was gay. That student and the student who was beaten were friends, police
said. Police have not classified the beating as a hate crime. Cabot told the
Las Cruces Sun-News earlier this week that there was not enough evidence to
prove it was a hate crime. “There’s a possibility that it may be,” he added.
One student has withdrawn from the university since the incident citing safety
as her reason for leaving. (The Associated Press State & Local Wire, August
31, 2001)
Aug. 26, 2001, Portland, Ore.
Lorenzo “Loni” Okaruru, according to detectives, died after being savagely beaten
about the head and face with a blunt instrument, most likely by a man who picked
up someone he thought was a woman and was angered to find out Okarura was a
biological male. Law enforcement officials have said they believe Okaruru was
killed based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Civil rights groups and
others in Portland, Ore., are denouncing the killing and say the murder shows
the misunderstanding and hatred directed at members of the transgender community.
The Washington County Sheriff's Office classified Okaruru’s Aug. 26 beating
death as a hate crime, the first such killing in the county. (The Associated
Press State and Local Wire, Sept. 4, 2001)
Aug. 26, 2001, Leawood, Kan.
Gary D. Raynal, an openly gay, 44-year-old man, was found dead under an apartment
deck after being tortured and severely beaten by at least two people, according
to police. Raynal had been sexually tortured with a metal rod, according to
his sister, Sandra Sheppard, and officials familiar with the investigation.
His ears had also been burned, and he might have been strangled. His sister
thinks he was killed because he was gay. Police have said they have suspects
in the case and are investigating the possibility that anti-gay bias may have
played a role in the crime. (Kansas City Star, Aug. 30 and Sept. 1, 2001, Interview
with Police Sergeant Scott Hansen, Sept. 6, 2001)
Aug. 30, 2001, Roseville, Calif.
Rodney Woidtke, 40, was charged with a hate crime for allegedly assaulting a
20-year-old black man and shouting racial comments.
Aug. 30, 2001, Galesburg, Ill.
Ronald W. Smith, 33, allegedly attacked a man because of the man’s sexual orientation.
Aug. 31, 2001, Lewiston, Idaho
Shane L. Johnson, 22, was charged with felony aggravated assault, misdemeanor
battery and misdemeanor malicious harassment for allegedly attacking a black
man.
Aug. 31, 2001, Palm Springs,
Calif.
Randy Reyes was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the 1999 beating
of two gay men outside of a local restaurant – three years for assault with
force likely to cause injury to one victim and three years for great bodily
injury to the second. One of the victims said that the assault on him was “barbaric
and inhumane” and for “no other reason than I’m a gay man.” (The Washington
Blade quoting The Desert Sun, Sept., 21, 2001)
Sept. 1, 2001, Madison, Wis.
Two white men allegedly used racist epithets and assaulted two Asian students.
Adam Coplien, and Carl Elam-Bishop, both 21, were charged with substantial battery
with intentional bodily harm, one felony and one misdemeanor charge of a hate
crime, and battery in connection with the incident.
Sept. 2, 2001, Athens, Ga.
Christopher Gregory, a 20-year-old gay man was left with facial injuries after
being attacked in an anti-gay incident outside a gay bar. Gregory was walking
with friends when a group of approximately four men and three women began shouting
anti-gay epithets at them, such as “faggot,” “look at those faggots” and “[expletive]-packers.”
After he turned and said, “Leave us alone!” one of the men allegedly punched
him in the right eye, sending him to the concrete. He did not see the punch
coming and landed on his face. As the alleged perpetrators walked away, one
yelled “stupid faggot.” Gregory was treated at a local hospital and reported
the incident to police. He said the police were “anything but sympathetic” and
were more concerned with his alcohol consumption than details about the bashing.
The police filed the report as a hate crime that was alcohol related, have not
interviewed witnesses and do not have any suspects, according to new reports.
(Southern Voice, Sept. 13, 2001)
Sept. 4, 2001, Queens, N.Y.
Edgar Garzon, 35, died three weeks after he was attacked when leaving a gay
bar in Jackson Heights, N.Y., on Aug. 14, according to police. Garzon suffered
a skull fracture in the attack and died at Elmhurst General Hospital. Garzon
had just left Friends Tavern when two men in a red car exchanged words with
him and followed him toward his home. At the intersection the suspects got out
of their car, pounded Garzon with either a baseball bat or lead pipe, then fled
with his wallet. Police have labeled the beating a bias attack. (Newsday, Sept.
5, 2001)
Sept. 5, 2001, Madison, Wis.
An appeals court ruled that a man convicted of first-degree intentional homicide
after testifying that he was driven to kill a tavern owner because of the man’s
sexual advances will not get a new trial. Kelly V. Bodoh, 23, faces life in
prison after being convicted in the 1998 murder of Robin Elsinger, 40. Bodoh
appealed the conviction saying that his attorney was deficient for not ordering
psychosexual and alcohol evaluations that would have made other potential defenses,
such as homosexual panic or posttraumatic stress, apparent. (The Chicago Tribune,
Sept. 6, 2001)
Sept. 6, 2001, Huntingburg,
Ind.
One of four men police say conspired to kill a Hispanic man in a drive-by shooting
was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors are hopeful that Francisco
Calderon, 21, the only suspect in police custody, will be able to lead them
to the other three and the person who actually did the shooting. He admitted
to being in the backseat when the four killed Benito Vasquez, 30, in April 2000.
Calderon confirmed investigators’ theories that Vasquez was targeted because
of his heritage as a Hispanic. Originally, law enforcement thought the crime
might be gang-related. (Evansville Courier & Press, Sept. 7, 2001)
Sept. 6, 2001, Madison, Wis.
Two men were arrested on the University of Wisconsin campus for their part in
attempting to strangle a gay man. The Rev. Chuck Spignola brought a group to
campus to talk about abortion and homosexuality. One of his followers allegedly
told a gay man that his time had come to go to hell and started choking him.
Spignola also had been arrested in June 2000 in an incident where he poured
gasoline on a security volunteer at a gay pride parade in Columbus, Ohio. The
volunteer had just asked Spignola to step away from participants when he sprayed
her with gas. “You’re all gonna burn in hell,” he yelled. He then set fire to
a rainbow-colored gay pride flag, which he had done on several earlier occasions.
(WISC Channel3000.com, Sept. 7, 2001; www.tolerance.org website, Sept. 7, 2001.)
Sept. 6, 2001, Chicago
Johnathan Brown, 21, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and ordered to perform
200 hours of community service and attend sensitivity counseling for his role
in a 1998 attack against a group of Hispanics teen-agers.
Sept. 7, 2001, Woodside, N.Y.
Two Pakistani men were allegedly assaulted and robbed by six white men who yelled
racial slurs.
Sept. 8, 2001, Bloomington,
Ill.
Eric Binion, 27, Tony Cole, 24, and Adam Carver, 26, were charged with a felony
hate crime after allegedly attacking five college students while yelling racial
epithets.
Sept. 11, 2001
The terrorist attack on America was “perhaps the most massive hate crime ever
perpetuated,” according to Attorney General John Ashcroft, speaking before the
Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 25. After the attack, people began targeting
their fellow Americans and others who appear to be of Muslim, Middle-Eastern,
and South-Asian descent for violence. Hundreds of innocent people have been
targeted, and incidents have been reported from coast to coast, ranging from
threats to vandalism to intimidation to assault to several murders. As of this
printing, federal investigators had launched over 200 investigations into these
incidents. Some of the incidents are captured below.
Sept. 11, 2001, Tulsa, Okla.
Police said a Pakistani native was hospitalized after being beaten by three
men in a hate crime. (The Associated Press, Sept. 13, 2001)
Sept. 11, 2001, New York City
Micahel Galgano, 38, who was charged with a bias crime and reckless endangerment,
claimed that he did not commit a crime but was highly emotional after witnessing
the World Trade Center attack. Galgano, a paroled rapist, was arrested hours
after the terrorist attacks for allegedly threatening two gay men holding hands
near St. Vincent’s Hospital. “He threatened to assault the victim, while reaching
into his knapsack” as if he had a weapon, according to police who were searching
for Galgano because he did not show for a follow-up court date. (The New York
Post, Dec. 14, 15, 2001)
Sept. 11, 2001, Palos Heights,
Ill.
Robert Shereikis, 39, was charged with a felony hate crime, unlawful use of
a weapon and aggravated battery after he allegedly attacked a man he believed
was of Arab descent.
Sept. 11, 2001, Ronkonkoma,
N.Y.
Brian Harris, 29, was charged with a hate crime after he allegedly held an Arab-American
person at gunpoint while making anti-Arab threats.
Sept. 11, 2001, Pittsburgh,
Pa.
David Hardwig, 43, was charged with simple assault and ethnic intimidation for
allegedly assaulting a Pakistani student.
Sept. 12, 2001, Boston
Three teen-agers are facing federal hate crime charges after allegedly hurling
three Molotov cocktails onto a convenience store that they thought was owned
by an Arab the day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The owner, Aswin Patel,
an Indian man, escaped unharmed. The three have been charged with assault with
intent to murder and arson. The young men claimed they wanted to “get back at
Arabs.” (Cape Code Times, Sept. 25, 2001)
Sept. 12, 2001, Los Angeles
Nicolai Delevante, 25, has been charged with a hate crime for allegedly yelling
threats and waving a gun in the face of taxicab driver and a passenger, both
of whom are Iranian men, after getting in an argument. (San Jose Mercury News,
Sept. 30, 2001)
Sept. 12, 2001, Bridgeview,
Ill.
(Editor’s note: unlike all others incidents listed in this document, to our
knowledge, this one did not involve death or bodily injury. It was included
for its poignancy in understanding the climate of fear related to hate incidents
in the wake of Sept. 11.) Police turned back 300 noisy marchers, mostly teen-agers,
chanting “USA, USA” and anti-Muslim epithets as they marched on a Mosque in
the Chicago suburb. One 19-year-old participant was quoted as saying, “I’m proud
to be American, and I hate Arabs, and I always have.” Three demonstrators were
arrested for disorderly conduct. “This was a mob,” said one woman, afraid to
be identified. “We had people riding down our block shouting obscenities [like]
‘Go home you bleeping ragheads, bleeping a-rabs, we’re gonna get you.’” She
said that she and her husband stayed up all night guarding their windows. They
were afraid to call the police for fear of having their home singled out. (The
Associated Press and Reuters, Sept. 13, 2001)
Sept. 12, 2001, Gary, Ind.
A man in a ski mask fired an assault rifle at a gas station where a Yemen-born
U.S. citizen was working. Police were investigating it as a hate crime. (The
Associated Press, Sept. 13, 2001)
Sept. 12, 2001, Huntington,
N.Y.
A 75-year-old man, who was drunk, tried to run over a Pakistani woman in the
parking lot of a shopping mall, according to police. The man then followed the
woman into the store and threatened to kill her for “destroying my country.”
(The Associated Press, Sept. 13, 2001)
Sept. 12, 2001, Los Angeles
Nicolai Delevante, 25, was charged with making a criminal threat, violating
civil rights and exhibiting a firearm after he allegedly yelled racial threats
and waved a gun at two Iranian men.
Sept. 13, 2001, Bunker Hill,
Ill.
James Logsdon, a 22-year-old white man, was charged with aggravated battery
and a hate crime after he allegedly drove a car into a black teen-ager in April.
Sept. 13, 2001, Chicago
Andrew Holden, a 49-year-old white man, was charged with assault, a hate crime
and disorderly conduct after allegedly threatening to bomb a food store owned
by an Arab-American person.
Sept. 13, 2001, Bloomington,
Ind.
A Muslim student was allegedly assaulted and verbally harassed by a white student.
Sept. 13, 2001, Palos Heights,
Ill.
A man who used the blunt end of a machete to attack a Moroccan gas station attendant
was charged with a hate crime. (The Associated Press, September 13, 2001)
Sept. 13, 2001, Northern Indiana
Police were investigating an apparent hate crime against a Yemini immigrant
operating a gas station. A man sprayed the protective glass shield protecting
the operator with an assault rifle. The victim fled and the gunman tried to
shoot him again. (Reuters, Oct. 10, 2001)
Sept. 13, 2001, Denton, Texas
A Molotov cocktail was thrown against the side of the Islamic Society building.
(The Associated Press, Sept. 13, 2001)
Sept. 13, 2001, Reno, Nev.
Two suspected skinheads, Chris Amador, 30, and Eddie Rourke, 30, were arrested
in the beating and robbery of Bryan Brown, 24, in what police are calling a
hate crime. Police said that the two suspects hit Brown in the face numerous
times with their fists and struck him in the face with an unknown object. Two
days before the attack, investigators said, Brown and his Hispanic girlfriend
were confronted by one of the perpetrators outside their residence. The girlfriend
and Brown had a child together, and the perpetrator told Brown that “he was
messing up the white race.” Brown suffered facial and jaw fractures in the attack
and was treated at a local hospital. (Sacramento Bee, Oct. 1, 2001)
Sept. 14, 2001, Bloomfield,
N.J.
Two white women allegedly assaulted a man of Jordanian descent.
Sept. 14, 2001, Alexandria,
Va.
Michael Wayne Johnson, 49, was arrested on assault and hate crime charges for
following Mustafa Nazary, a 33-year-old truck driver of Afghani descent, into
a parking lot in his truck, jumping out and punching him. What provoked the
confrontation is in dispute. Nazary claims that Johnson pulled alongside him,
asked if he was Afghan and then said, “I’m gonna kill you.” Johnson claims Nazary
was looking at him with a mocking grin and after making eye contact, asked Nazary
“What’s your problem?” Johnson claims his actions were provoked when Nazary
said “You’re all gonna die” and later spit at him during a heated exchange.
(The Washington Post, Sept. 18, 2001)
Sept. 15, 2001, San Francisco
Police reported that a 26-year-old man was recovering from stab wounds after
an apparent hate crime in the South Market area of San Francisco. Robin Clarke
was hospitalized after being stabbed in the chest by someone who allegedly thought
his companion, Sean Fernandes, 26, was an Arab. Fernandes is Australian and
of Indian and Hispanic heritage. The stabbing took place after someone in a
group of young men and women passing them on the street punched him and Clarke.
According to Fernandes, the suspect called him a “dirty Arab” and said, “We
don’t like Arabs.” Clarke was stabbed in the ensuing fight before the suspect
fled in a blue Mustang coupe. (San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 9, 2001, The New
York Times, Sept. 19, 2001)
Sept. 15, 2001, San Gabriel,
Calif.
Federal authorities are investigating as a possible hate crime the killing of
Adel Karas, 48, an Egyptian-American grocer, who was shot to death while he
worked in his store. Local officials were treating the incident as a robbery
that resulted in a murder. Relatives believe the killing took place because
the attackers assumed that Karas, a Coptic Christian from Egypt, was a Muslim.
They believe he was a victim of an attack motivated by the Sept. 11 attacks,
not a robbery, saying all the cash was left in the register. (San Jose Mercury
News, Sept. 30, 2001)
Sept. 15, 2001, Dallas
The FBI is investigating the shooting death of Waqar Hasan, a Pakistani Muslim,
as a possible hate crime in the wake of Sept. 11. The victim was found shot
dead at his store in the Pleasant Grove section of Dallas. (The New York Times,
Sept. 19, 2001)
Sept. 16, 2001, Eugene Ore.
A 54-year-old California woman was arrested and charged with intimidation and
harassment for trying to pull the turban off a Sikh man at a highway rest stop.
Investigators say she approached two Sikh men thinking they were Islamic fundamentalists
and blamed them for the terrorist attacks. (KPIX, Sept. 18, 2001; The New York
Times, Sept. 19, 2001)
Sept. 16, 2001, Mesa, Ariz.
The FBI is investigating the shooting death of Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh, as
a possible hate crime. He was shot outside a gas station he owned. “Mr. Sodhi
was killed for no other apparent reason than that he was dark-skinned and wore
a turban,” a county official said. The Sikh vows require practicing males to
observe “kesh,” uncut hair and beard, and to wear a turban, viewed as a crown
of spirituality, according to press reports. Authorities have charged Frank
Roque, 42, with the crime, and he has pleaded not guilty. He is also charged
with opening fire on a Lebanese-American clerk at a second gas station and on
the home of an Afghan family later that day. No one was injured in the later
two attacks. When arrested, police said Roque shouted that he was a patriot.
“I’m a damn American all the way. Arrest me. Let those terrorists run wild,”
police quoted him as saying. (San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 18 & Oct. 9, 2001;
Reuters, Oct. 5, 2001, Chicago Sun Times, Sept. 18, 2001)
Sept. 16, 2001, Hamilton, N.J.
Charles Harvey, 23, was charged with aggravated assault, weapons possession,
robbery and harassment for allegedly threatening a man of Middle-Eastern descent.
Sept. 16, 2001, Chula Vista,
Calif.
A motorist hit a woman wearing an Islamic-style veil.
Sept. 16, 2001, San Rafael,
Calif.
Shari Mitchell, 54, was charged with intimidation and harassment after allegedly
attacking two Sikh men.
Sept. 16, 2001, Boston
A group of white men allegedly stabbed a Saudi-Arabian man.
Sept. 17, 2001, Santa Barbara,
Calif.
Three white men allegedly attacked a Saudi-Arabian student at a local university.
Sept. 17, 2001, Centerville,
Pa.
Paul A. Fultz Jr., 20, was charged with two counts of ethnic intimidation, one
count of aggravated assault, three counts of simple assault, and single counts
of reckless endangerment, harassment/stalking, possession of a weapon on school
property for allegedly attacking a teen-age girl of Middle-Eastern descent.
Sept. 17, 2001, Evanston, Ill.
Mustapha Zemkour, a Chicago taxi driver and student, was injured when two men
– including a Cook County corrections officer – chased him on motorcycles, then
allegedly hit him in the face and yelled, “This is what you get, you mass murderer.”
The perpetrators “apparently assumed he was of Arab descent” police said. The
two men were charged with aggravated battery and a hate crime in the attack.
(Chicago Tribune, Sept. 18, 2001)
Sept. 18, 2001, Palos Hills,
Ill.
Two Muslim girls were beaten at Moraine Valley Community College. (The Washington
Post, Sept. 18, 2001)
Sept. 18, 2001, San Mateo,
Calif.
Someone lobbed a Molotov cocktail through the window of a Sikh family’s home.
The fuse was lit but fortunately the crude firebomb did not explode as it hit
the head of a 3-year-old child in the house. (The New York Times, Sept. 19,
2001)
Sept. 18, 2001, Fort Wayne,
Ind.
Two men allegedly assaulted a 38-year-old man of Indian descent and called him
an Arab.
Sept. 18, 2001, Greensboro,
N.C.
Two men allegedly assaulted a Lebanese student while yelling, “Go home, terrorist.”
Sept. 18, 2001, Seattle
Raymond Isais Jr., 31, was charged with malicious harassment for allegedly assaulting
a taxi driver and demanding to know if he was a terrorist.
Sept. 18, 2001, Seattle
Patrick Cunningham, 53, was charged with first-degree assault and second-degree
attempted arson for allegedly threatened to shoot two Muslim men and trying
to set fire to the mosque where they worship.
Sept. 19, 2001, Wiggins, Miss.
Hasnain Javed, a 20-year-old Pakistani student, allegedly was assaulted by fellow
jail inmates after he reportedly shouted obscenities against the United States.
Sept. 19, 2001, Olympia, Wash.
A black man allegedly assaulted a white man while yelling racist comments.
Sept. 20, 2001, Fort Worth,
Texas
A white man allegedly stabbed two Ethiopian men.
Sept. 21, 2001, Los Angeles
Scott Yungkans, 38, has been charged with making felony threats that carry a
special hate crime allegation after allegedly entering a gas station and asking
where the attendant was from. When the employee answered Jerusalem, Yungkans
allegedly vowed to bomb Israel and blow up the attendant. He left and returned
with an ammunition canister with the words “mortar shells” printed on the side.
The attendant and other witnesses fled the station. (San Jose Mercury News,
Sept. 30, 2001)
Oct. 21, 2001, Durham, N.C.
The similar slayings of two young gay men had members of the local gay community
concerned for their safety. The deaths of Robert Michael Neice, 30, and John
Randall, 31, within a month of each other shared some similarities. Both men
were gay, white and in their early 30s. Both were stabbed to death inside their
apartments and apparently used Internet chat rooms to meet people. No arrests
have been made, and police were offering a reward for information leading to
an arrest. (Durham Herald-Sun, Oct. 25, 2001, Raleigh News & Observer, Sept.
26, 2001)
Sept. 25, 2001, Tempe, Ariz.
A 19-year-old Native-American student was allegedly assaulted and called racist
slurs.
Sept. 26, 2001, Clinton, Iowa
Two men allegedly taunted a man of Muslim faith with racial slurs and then assaulted
him.
Sept. 28, 2001, Cambridge,
Mass.
Four white men allegedly physically and verbally harassed a Muslim student.
Sept. 28, 2001, Holden, Mass.
James Lehans, 20, was charged with assault for allegedly attacking a man who
Lehans believed was of Middle-Eastern descent.
Sept. 28, 2001, St. Louis
Ronald Collins, a 27-year-old black man, was charged with first-degree assault
for allegedly beating a biracial boy.
Sept. 28, 2001, Bronx, N.Y.
Christopher Damien, 31, and Allen Davie, 21, were charged with assault for allegedly
attacking two Yemeni brothers.
Sept. 28, 2001, Lancaster,
Calif.
Sheriff’s detectives were investigating whether an attack on a Hispanic man,
Gerald Pimentel, who was mistaken for Iranian, is a hate crime. According to
police, two men bumped his car three times while he drove on Antelope Valley
Freeway. Pimentel said his car was then blocked, and the men began yelling and
running toward him. They chased him through his yard and into his home. When
he tried to defend his family, they beat him. “They’d been calling him an Iranian,”
Pimentel’s daughter said. “I couldn’t understand why. You know, my dad is not
Iranian. They just kept hitting and hitting my dad,” she said. Two men, Mark
A. Martin, 20, and Timothy A. Martin were arrested and charged with felony assault
with a deadly weapon causing great bodily harm. (The Associated Press (fresnobee.com),
Oct. 1, 2001)
Sept. 28, 2001, Falls Church,
Va.
An area man of Middle-Eastern descent had to flee from another driver, who repeatedly
rammed and chased his car and yelled a racial slur at him, police said. The
incident began when the man passed a pickup truck and then reached an intersection
where the truck slammed into the back of his car. When he got out, the other
driver yelled an epithet and then rammed his car twice more. The victim drove
away but ended up on a dead-end street where the perpetrator drove into him
again on the driver’s side of the car. The victim was able to drive away without
being seriously hurt. His car was not seriously damaged, police said. The victim
described his attacker as a white male, 50 to 60 years old, with a gray beard,
driving an older maroon or burgundy pickup truck with wood panels on the bed.
(The Washington Post, Oct. 3, 2001)
Sept. 29, 30, 2001, Reedley,
Calif.
Abdo Ali Ahmed, an Arab-American storeowner was shot and killed in his convenience
store, after receiving death threats and being subjected to racial slurs. His
family thinks his death was part of a trend of hate crimes toward Middle-Eastern
immigrants. Two days before the killing, Ahmed found a death threat note on
his car after shopping at a nearby store. He tore the paper up and threw it
away, according to a relative. (The Associated Press, Oct. 5, 2001)
Sept. 29, 2001, San Jose, Calif.
Phillip Albert Salgado, 31, was charged with three hate crimes after allegedly
attacking three people of East-Indian and Middle-Eastern descent. He was also
charged with arson and a hate crime after allegedly starting a fire on the porch
of the home of a family he believed to be of Middle-Eastern descent.
Sept. 30, 2001, Lincoln, Neb.
Three white men allegedly assaulted a Jordanian student.
Sept. 30, 2001, San Diego County,
Calif.
A 51-year-old Sikh woman was attacked by two men who stabbed her twice in the
head and threatened to kill her. She said she was attacked as she sat in her
car on Mirmar Road. Two men pulled next to her on a motorcycle, opened her door
and allegedly yelled, “This is what you get for what you’ve done to us.” One
of the men also allegedly said, “This is what you get for what your people have
done to us. I’m going to slash your throat.” The men fled when another car approached.
She said she was afraid to leave her home after the attack. Her advice to fellow
Sikhs, “I want to remind Sikhs and anyone who is brown to keep their car doors
locked.” Police have appealed to the public for help in tracking down the assailants.
(The Associated Press and KGTV TheSanDiegoChannel.com, Oct. 5, 9, Dec. 17, 2001)
Oct. 2, 2001, Orange County,
Fla.
Police say a bullet that shattered a local man’s car window may have been the
county’s first hate attack in the wake of Sept. 11. The man, who wanted to remain
anonymous, believes he was the victim of a hate crime because of the way he
looks. “I have a very Middle-Eastern look,” he said. The victim was driving
his 4-year-old daughter to school on Highway 417 when he heard a loud bang in
the back of his car. At first, he thought a tire had blown out, but when he
looked back, his whole window was shattered. He realized a bullet had been fired
from a white Ford pickup truck. The bullet missed his daughter’s head by less
than 1 foot. (WKMG MyCFNow.com, Oct. 5, 2001)
October 1-5 (week of), 2001,
Los Angeles
An Islamic group and family members are calling on police to investigate the
killing of a Palestinian-American as a hate crime. Abdulla Mohammed Nimer, 54,
was shot to death as he sold clothing door-to-door in his south Los Angeles
neighborhood, something he had done for years, the group said. He was walking
to his car when a gunman and accomplice demanded his keys. He was then shot
in the abdomen. Police said the shooting appears to be an attempted robbery.
(The Associated Press, Oct. 9, 2001)
Oct. 3, 2001, Riverside, Calif.
Alan Thomas Yantis, a 21-year-old white man, was sentenced to 10 years in prison
for his role in an attack on a black man in 1999.
Oct. 4, 2001, Macomb, Ill.
Two white men, Joshua King, 22, and Michael Horwedel, 25, were charged with
battery for allegedly attacking a black man while yelling racial slurs.
Oct. 4, 2001, Lexington, Ky.
On two separate incidents a Palestinian student and an Indian student were assaulted
at a local university.
Oct. 4, 2001, Mesquite, Texas
Mark Anthony Stroman, 32, was charged with allegedly murdering a man of Indian
descent.
Oct. 6, 2001, Topeka, Kan.
Police have classified as a hate crime an attack on a 21-year-old man from Bangladesh
who is a student at a local university. The victim entered a convenience store
when three men began asking him questions about his national origin and religion.
The men told the victim he could not come into “their territory.” One of them
used a racial slur and punched the victim in the side of the neck. The victim
was treated twice at a local hospital for his injuries in the attack. (The Associated
Press, State and Local Wire, Oct. 8, 2001)
Oct. 7, 2001, Palm Springs,
Calif.
Eric Bridge, a 22-year-old man, told police he was robbed and beaten unconscious
by four men who chased him from a downtown bar after accusing him of being gay
and hurling anti-gay slurs at him. Bridge was treated for cuts and bruises at
a local medical center and released. The victim said he wasn’t gay but believes
he was targeted based on perception. (The Washington Blade, Oct. 19, 2001)
Oct. 7, 2001, Mira Mesa, Calif.
An attack on a man of Indian descent, who was knocked out with a baseball bat,
is being investigated as a hate crime linked to the Sept. 11 backlash. The victim
told police he was walking beside the road when he heard someone yell an ethnic
slur. Then he was hit on the head and momentarily knocked unconscious. He told
police a woman came to his aid and told him he’d been hit by two white males
with a blue aluminum baseball bat. He was treated at a local hospital. (www.signonsandiego.com,
Oct. 10, 2001)
Oct. 7, 2001, Grand Junction,
Colo.
Two men, John Hart, 23, and Jake Ashby 21, were jailed in the possible beating
of a Mexican man who authorities say was picked at random in a possible hate
crime. The victim, Hector Cordova, 29, had stopped at a stop sign when he saw
two men dressed in camouflage coming toward him. He thought they were soldiers,
but they dragged him out of his car and knocked him around, the town marshal
said. They then drove him in his own car to the desert south of town and beat
him some more before robbing him of his money and his wedding ring. He was admitted
to a local hospital and was treated for extensive cuts and bruises. (Rocky Mountain
News, Oct. 12, 2001)
Oct. 10, 2001, Kansas City,
Kan.
Police are investigating a possible hate crime against a convenience store owner
who is a native of Pakistan. Bullets were fired into his shop shattering the
front window of the store. No one was injured in the attack as the store was
closed at the time. (TheKansasCityChannel.com, Oct. 10, 2001)
Oct. 11, 2001, College Park,
Md.
University of Maryland campus police are investigating a violent hate crime
that occurred on National Coming Out Day. Around 1 p.m., a 22-year-old woman
wearing gay-supportive pins was hanging her bicycle on her car rack when a man
approached her from behind and struck her on the back of her head, pushing her
head into the rack and knocking her to the ground. The white male kicked her
several times while she was on the ground as he hurled anti-lesbian epithets
and expletives, according to police. The woman, who was treated at the University
health center, sustained a black eye, a bruise on her nose and scratches on
her legs and arms. The woman only saw the man's leg, and police have no suspects.
(Prince George’s Journal, Oct., 14, 2001, The Washington Blade, Oct. 19, 2001)
Oct. 16, 2001, Gastonia, N.C.
Virgil Crump, 42, was sentenced to nine to 11 months in prison on charges of
committing a misdemeanor due to prejudice and habitual misdemeanor assault for
trying to hit a black woman with his car in July.
Oct. 16, 2001, Racine, Wis.
Andrew E. Savage, 40, was charged with a hate crime for allegedly yelling at
an Indian convenience store owner who Savage believed was of Middle-Eastern
descent.
Oct. 17, 2001, Bartow, Fla.
Tavares Wright, 20, and Brandan Gatlin, 21, who are black, were charged with
attempted second-degree murder and aggravated battery by a jail detainee for
allegedly beating a white fellow inmate.
Oct. 20, 2001, San Diego
Dr. Stanley Grogg of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was charged with battery and misdemeanor
hate crime charges in connection with the alleged beating of an Afghani taxicab
driver. Authorities said that Grogg and two companions hailed a cab to return
to their hotel after sightseeing downtown. During the ride, the passengers asked
the driver his nationality. After he answered, a heated argument ensued. Gross
told police that the victim had made anti-American statements. When the cab
stopped, Grogg got out and allegedly put his hands around the man’s throat and
struck him with his fist. (KGTV, The SanDiegoChanel.com, Oct. 29, 2001.)
Oct. 21, 2001, Anaheim, Calif.
Several Asian men allegedly assaulted a man of Asian-Indian descent.
Oct. 21, 2001, New York City
Three men allegedly attacked a Pakistani storeowner.
Oct. 22, 2001, Shrewsbury,
Mass.
A soda can thrown from a passing vehicle struck a woman wearing Muslim attire
allegedly.
Oct. 22, 2001, Minneapolis
Ali Ali, a 66-year-old Somali man died after he was attacked at a bus stop and
beaten unconscious. His friends, family and other members of the Somali community
say that Ali was a gentle man and that they believe the attack was a hate crime
committed because he was Somali. (St. Paul Pioneer Press, Oct. 25, 2001)
Oct. 25, 2001, Dumfries, Va.
A woman and her son were arrested after they allegedly led a mob attack on two
Afghan-American teen-agers in what police say was a hate-related fight. County
police said April Scruggs, 42, and Jarvis Berkley Wilhoit, 19, hit and kicked
the teen-agers after more than a month of taunting them and calling them names.
According to police, Wilhoit and a group of friends approached the youths, who
are brothers ages 16 and 17, and began taunting and hitting them. Scruggs joined
the fight and hit the 17-year-old in the head with a wrench. The two escaped
into a neighbor’s house, and neither were seriously injured. (The Washington
Post, Nov. 4, 2001)
Oct. 31, 2001, Grand Forks,
N.D.
Kevin Dvork, 22, was charged with simple assault for allegedly attacking a Saudi-Arabian
student.
Nov. 1, 2001, Sioux Falls,
S.D.
Two white youths were charged with six counts of aggravated assault after allegedly
firing a shotgun several times while chasing five Indian-American teen-age girls.
Nov. 1, 2001, Manassas, Va.
Two men severely beat a Pakistani taxicab driver in what police and prosecutors
are calling a hate crime. The beating, which began after the men berated the
driver because of his Middle-Eastern descent, was the second in the county since
Sept. 11. The driver suffered a concussion and several other superficial wounds
in the attack, in a beating that police believe was unprovoked. The perpetrators
had been drinking before getting in the cab and immediately began taunting the
driver. The cab company called the police after losing radio contact with the
driver, who was found in a daze at the motel where the beating occurred. The
perpetrators were staying in the motel. Authorities said they were belligerent,
making jokes and laughing when arrested and didn’t appear to think they had
done anything wrong. One was speaking “in his version of a Middle-Eastern language,”
police said. (The Washington Post, Nov. 4, 2001)
Nov. 2, 2001, Cedaredge, Colo.
Local authorities opened the files into the investigation of the October 2000
shooting death of a gay-man, Steve Ruck, 31, in response to legal pressure from
a local newspaper. Authorities ruled the death as a suicide, but hazy details
and unanswered questions about the incident have led local gay-rights groups
to say that it might have been a hate crime. Ruck died of a gunshot wound to
the head and was in the bedroom of a neighbor, Bobby Wells, 62, when the shooting
occurred. Ruck and Wells had spent the day golfing and drinking and both were
intoxicated at the time of his death. Wells gave authorities numerous accounts
of what happened before the shooting. Initially, he said he was not in the trailer
when Ruck died. Later, he said he and Ruck were lying on the bed in the dark,
and he did not see Ruck shoot himself. He also said they were sitting in the
bedroom looking at Wells’ pistols. In another account, he said he was in the
bathroom when the shot occurred. He also said that Ruck had at one point placed
a loaded pistol to his head. Ruck’s blood was spattered on Wells’ clothing and
feet showing that he was 4 to 6 feet away from the victim at the time of the
shooting. Wells said he is not gay and has no animosity toward gays. He said
in one interview that he had no idea that Ruck was gay. In another, he said
he might have heard he was. (Denver Post, Nov. 2, 2001)
Nov. 2, 2001, Billings, Mont.
Six men associated with a skinhead group, ages 23 to 29, were found guilty of
conspiring to violate the civil rights of racial and religious minorities after
accosting three people in a “park patrol” in a local park. One of the victims
testified that that he, his girlfriend and cousin were terrified when a band
of armed skinheads chased them in July 2000. The victim, who is black and Hispanic,
said that the attackers chased them, shouted racial insults and proclaimed that
the park belonged to them. (The Associated Press, Nov. 4, 2001)
Nov. 3, 2001, Bloomington,
Ill.
William H. Hubbs, 43, was charged with aggravated assault and a hate crime after
he allegedly threw a knife at a man and yelled insults about his ethnicity.
Nov. 4, 2001, Hendersonville,
N.C.
Gene Autry Williams, 60, was charged with several crimes including 17 counts
of assault for allegedly pointing a gun, ethnic intimidation and discharging
a firearm into an occupied home after yelling racial slurs at a Hispanic family
and shot into their home.
Nov. 5, 2001, Fairfax, Va.
A group of about 11 people allegedly attacked a white teen-age girl while yelling
anti-American and anti-white slurs.
Nov. 6, 2001, Denver
Two men allegedly beat a man of Middle-Eastern descent.
Nov. 7, 2001, Boston
Police said a fight at school in which five girls and one boy were arrested
was over an earring, but students and a teacher said the scarves of Muslim girls
were yanked from their heads in a “major display of intolerance.” The incident
led Somali parents at a local school concerned about the safety of their children
to call an emergency meeting to discuss the incident. While school and police
officials were still investigating whether the incident was a hate crime, at
least one teacher said she thought it was. (Boston Globe, Nov. 10, 2001)
Nov. 7, 2001, Tulelake, Calif.
Three white men allegedly fired gunshots while yelling racial slurs at a Hispanic
man they believed was of Arab descent.
Nov. 7, 2001, Devine, Tex.
Three high school students faced felony charges and were suspended from school
after they tied up a fellow student and threatened to drag him behind a pickup
truck. According to a father of one of the suspects, the three students tied
up the victim after he gave them consent and released him when he became afraid.
But according to the victim’s father, Joe Munoz, it was “not just playing around,”
and the victim feared for his life. He said the incident might be a hate crime
since his son is Hispanic and the three suspects are not. Police said there
was no evidence to support it being a hate crime. (KSAT San Antonio, Nov. 9,
2001)
Nov. 8, 2001, Hyannis, Mass.
Robert Evans, 31, was charged with a hate crime after allegedly attacking two
Pakistani men.
Nov. 9, 2001, Milford, Conn.
Thomas Stewart, 20, was sentenced to a total prison term of five years, suspended
after 30 days served, with four years’ probation for his role in a 1999 racial
attack on a black teen. Stewart also must submit to substance abuse treatment
and evaluation and perform 25 hours of community service.
Nov. 14, 2001, Venice, Ill.
Tyrone M. Williams, 21, Marcus Campbell, 18, and Robert Burt, 25, were charged
with committing a hate crime and mob action after they allegedly attacked an
Iraqi-American storeowner.
Nov. 14, 2001, Milwaukee
Pablo Parrilla, 25, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide while
armed in connection with the death of Juana Vega, 36. Friends and relatives
of the woman are calling on the district attorney’s office to charge the man
with a hate crime for murdering his sister’s girlfriend because she was a lesbian.
The shooting occurred when Vega went to the home of her girlfriend’s family
to attempt reconciliation. Instead, Parrilla confronted her outside the house
and shot her repeatedly, the criminal complaint says. One friend quoted Parrilla
as saying on numerous occasions, “I’m going to kill you because you are gay,”
and “You turned my sister gay.” Parrilla’s sister had her first lesbian relationship
with Vega, according to friends. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov. 20, 2001)
Nov. 15, 2001, Snellville,
Ga.
Michael Bargeron, 17, was ordered to attend boot camp and remain on probation
for five years after yelling racial slurs while injuring a black student with
his car.
Nov. 15, 2001, Lakewood, N.J.
A Muslim man was beaten with a baseball bat and cut with a knife by two men
as he left a shopping plaza.
Nov. 16, 2001, Lakewood, N.J.
A black man and a black woman allegedly attacked a Jewish student.
Nov. 18, 2001, San Diego
A man pleaded guilty to felony battery charges in connection with the first
post-Sept. 11 hate crime case prosecuted by the San Diego County District Attorney’s
office involving a Middle-Eastern victim. Horacio Plascencia, 30, faces up to
six years in prison when he is sentenced. The attack happened at a gas station
when Plascencia brandished a screwdriver after the clerk refused his orders
to give him a pack of cigarettes. “What if I kill you?” he said. A short time
later he came back to pay for the cigarettes at which time he asked the clerk
where he was from. When the victim told him, the defendant said, “Then I am
going to kill you,” and attacked the man with the screwdriver. He pulled the
victim’s head to the counter and tried to stab him. The victim was hit on the
head with the screwdriver but was not seriously injured. (KGTV, The SanDiegoChanel.com,
Dec. 3, 2001)
Nov. 18, 2001, Huntington,
W.Va.
Michael Fife, 28, was in a coma for almost a month after he was beaten, robbed
of $20 and left in an alley for dead while walking home from a gay nightclub.
Fife suffered a fractured skull and internal bleeding and has not awoken from
the coma. Three people have been charged in the beating. Police have said that
he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The incident was reported
in the press after another man’s home was ransacked on Nov. 30 and hate-filled
graffiti was scrawled across his walls. Police are investigating the break-in
as a possible hate crime. The graffiti included a swastika and slurs against
gays, Jews and blacks. “We got one, we’ll get you too” was also scrawled on
the wall, according to press reports, leading at least one local business owner
to say he thinks the incidents are related and that Fife was attacked because
the alleged perpetrators thought he was gay. (Charleston Gazette On-line, Dec.
4, 2001)
Nov. 21, 2001, Riverside, Calif.
Two white supremacists who attacked a black man at a party were convicted in
what prosecutors called one of the worst hate crimes in the county. Travis Miskam,
23, and Jesse Douglas, 20, were convicted for their part in the beating and
stabbing of Randy Wordell Brown at a St. Patrick’s Day bonfire in 1999. Bowen
was hit on the head with a bottle and then chased by a group of people, some
of who shouted racial slurs. He managed to escape but not before being slashed
across the back with a sharp object. Bowen said that he saw Douglas carry a
razor the night of the attack and that Douglas had threatened to kill him. Prosecutors
said the defendants are Nazi Skinheads and admitted members of an international
white supremacy group. Miskam is believed to be the leader of a local chapter
of the group. (The Associated Press, Nov. 22, 2001)
Nov. 21, 2000, Lake Geneva,
Wis.
Douglas R. Zimmerman, 18, was sentenced to 100 days in jail and five years of
probation for being a party to a crime of substantial battery for attacking
a Hispanic man.
Nov. 24, 2001, Cincinnati
Police are investigating whether an attack on Theodore Jenkins, a 43-year-old
black man, was hate crime after the man was savagely beaten and stabbed. The
man told police he escaped five attackers after he was beaten with a nightstick
and stabbed four times in the back. He was walking to his north-side home before
the attack. “One of them picked up a glass bottle, threw it at me and yelled,
‘You black [expletive],’” he said. “It was like they were really waiting for
a black person to come through there and jump on,” he said. Jenkins’ wife called
911 after he managed to stumble five blocks to his home. He suffered a lacerated
kidney in the attack (WLWT ChannelCincinnati.com, Nov. 26, 2001)
Nov. 26, 2001, St. Paul, Minn.
Michael Pigg, 19, pleaded guilty to bias-motivated harassment for attacking
a four-year-old boy after a Ku Klux Klan rally in August 2001. According to
witnesses, Pigg and Jarod Sparks, 25, pushed the child – who is of mixed race
– off his bicycle, used racial epithets and punched the child in the side of
the head. A fourth degree assault charge against Pigg was dropped in exchange
for his plea. He is expected to testify against Sparks. (Star Tribune, Nov 15,
2001,WCCO.com at www.channel4000.com, Nov. 28, 2001)
Nov. 26, 2001, Englewood, Fla.
James Borghi and Randy Twombly, both 20, were each charged with one count of
felony hate crime for allegedly assaulting a man they believed was gay. Borghi
was also charged with theft and Twombly was charged with a misdemeanor in the
fight.
Nov. 29, 2001 , Fort Lauderdale,
Fla.
Imran Hussain, 26, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder for allegedly
bludgeoning a Muslim couple to death. The couple’s store was set on fire and
their burned bodies were found inside.
Nov. 29, 2001, Santa Rosa,
Calif.
Three teen-agers were charged with battery, conspiracy and a hate crime for
allegedly assaulting a student they believed was gay.
Nov. 29, 2001, Louisville,
Ky.
Kelly J. Moody, 22, was sentenced to five years of probation for a July 2000
attack against a group that included Jewish people.
Dec. 5, 2001, Lindsay, Calif.
A man of Yemeni descent was shot.
Dec. 12, 2001, Lindenhurst,
N.Y.
Two men allegedly attacked an Indian-American man and set his business afire
while yelling, “Go back to Afghanistan!”
Dec. 12, 2001, Jacksonville,
Fla.
Terrianne Summers, 51, a transgender activist, appears to have been shot in
the back of the head while getting out of her car in her driveway, according
to news reports. Local activists have asked police to investigate the murder
as a possible hate crime. Police suspect it was an attempted robbery. Summers'
purse, however, was not taken from the car. Local authorities have yet to identify
any suspects. Summers, a retired Navy Lieutenant Commander, organized a local
protest against the Winn-Dixie supermarket chain in January after an employee
was fired for cross-dressing off-duty, according to Monica Helms, director of
Trans=Action, a transgender advocacy group based in Atlanta. (The Florida Times-Union,
Jan. 25, 2002)
Dec. 14, 2001, Mobile, Ala.
A jury found a North Carolina man guilty of murdering Jamie Ray Tolbert, 24,
a gay Mississippi man, in an incident that occurred almost a year before on
Jan. 1, 2000. The jury recommended life in prison without parole for Brett David
Kabat, the first of two defendants in the case who are accused of kidnapping
Tolbert from a Biloxi gay bar and brutally strangling him and beating him to
death before dumping his body in Alabama and stealing his truck. Because friends
say Tobert was gay, was last seen at a gay bar, and the nature of his murder
was particularly brutal, local gay activists believe that Tolbert was targeted
because he was gay. Tolbert’s family has said that Tolbert was heterosexual.
When police found Tolbert’s body, he was beaten beyond recognition with just
a few teeth left in his mouth, according to testimony. The district attorney
has said there is no evidence that this is a hate crime and that “it was a crime
of opportunity, plain and simple.” (Southern Voice, Dec. 21, 2001)
Dec. 16, 2001, Champaign, Ill.
A Muslim student was attacked on a local street corner one week after several
men attacked an Asian-American student on another nearby corner. Both victims
claim the attackers used racial slurs during the assaults. (University Wire,
Feb. 26, 2002)
Dec. 22, 2001, Lake Elsinore,
Calif.
Two men, ages 19 and 22, and a 20-year-old woman allegedly beat and made defamatory
remarks to two people they perceived to be gay and also used racial slurs toward
a black store clerk.
Dec. 24, 2001, Riverside, Calif.
Robert Clyde, 36, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, was arrested after he
allegedly attacked a black man while screaming racial slurs.
Dec. 28, 2001, Marshfield,
Mass.
A teen-age assailant beat a man in his late 20s because the assailant thought
he was gay, according to police. The victim was standing outside a store on
Plain Street when a car containing three men pulled up. One of three began to
yell obscenities at the victim including calling him names “derogatory towards
being gay,” according to police. The victim and two friends entered the store.
Upon exiting the store, the assailant attacked the victim, beating him with
his fists. The victim fell and the assailant continued beating him and kicking
him while yelling anti-gay epithets. The assailant was later apprehended and
charged with three charges of assault and battery, including one with a dangerous
weapon (a shod foot) and one with intimidation due to sexual orientation. (The
Patriot Ledger, Jan. 1, 2001)
Dec. 30, 2001, San Diego
A 24-year-old Filipino man suffered multiple facial fractures that will require
surgery when he was beaten outside a Pacific Beach bar by four men who shouted
“white power” and told him America was for “whites” only. (KGTV, The SanDiegoChanel.com,
Dec. 31, 2001)
Jan. 5, 2002, Tacoma, Wash.
A woman was shot as she came to the aid of three men being attacked in a suspected
hate crime. Three nightclub patrons were in a parking lot near a club the men
had just left. Two or three other men left a second nightclub and returned to
the same parking lot where they sat in their pickup truck. The men in the truck
noticed the patrons and began to ask them, “Are you gay? Are you gay?” police
said. One of the men in the truck told the patrons that the lot was a “straight
parking lot,” and demanded they leave. The men in the truck then approached
the patrons and began beating them. The woman and her husband heard the patrons
pleading for help. When the women came to the aid of the men one of the attackers
hit her and the two began rolling around on the ground. The attacker then pulled
out a gun and shot the women once in the chest and fled the scene in the pickup
truck with the other attackers. The bullet traveled through her chest and lodged
in her cheek. She was treated at Tacoma General Hospital and has since been
released. Officers have made no arrests in this case. (The News Tribune, Jan.
8, 2002)
Jan. 11, 2002, New York City
Eric D. Miller, 26, was shot in the chest on a Harlem street by one of two men
who attacked him and Jason Taylor, 20, and shouted anti-gay remarks at them,
police said. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime, and detectives
were searching for the two attackers. Miller was treated at the hospital and
released. He and Taylor were walking to a friend’s apartment from the homeless
shelter where they had been staying when they were confronted by two men who
became enraged at the sight of the couple, according to Miller. “They said,
‘Black men shouldn’t be gay,’” Miller said, who noted that his assailants were
also black. “Then they started throwing rocks at us.” The victims’ friend was
not home; so they had to pass by the perpetrators a second time. One of the
perpetrators threw a bottle at Taylor and a fight broke out between the two
groups. Then, one of the attackers pulled out a small handgun and fired once
into Miller’s chest. “He kept saying, ‘Fire, Fire’ that I should burn in hell,”
Miller said, a former Marine who earns money giving music lessons to children.
“If God had intended for me to die for being gay, this would have been my fire,
but it wasn’t meant to be. This is America, and however you want to live you
should be able to, legally and happily,” he told the press. (The New York Times,
Jan. 14, 2002)
Jan. 11, 2002, New Orleans
Police continue to investigate the murder of Kevin Paris, a 33-year-old gay
transient who was stabbed and shot before his attacker meticulously cut his
body into 12 pieces, vertically slicing his spine with a hack saw. The pieces
were found in January 2001, in various garbage bags within a quarter-mile area
just outside of New Orleans. The coroner said it was the worst case he had ever
seen. Police admit it is a cold case that could use any information the public
may have regardless of how insignificant it may seem to be. (The Southern Voice,
Jan. 11, 2002)
Jan. 16, 2002 Atlanta
Michael Keith Bargeron is likely to become the first person prosecuted under
Georgia’s new hate crime law. A senior in high school, Bargeron, who is white,
is accused of intentionally hitting Keishuna Young, 15, with his car because
she is black. According to police, Bargeron yelled racial slurs at Keishuna
and her friend as he drove by in his car filled with friends. Seconds later
he turned around and tried to ram her with his car. Keishuna received bloody
scraps on her hip, wrist and elbow when she rolled off the car onto the pavement.
Bargeron remains in jail on aggravated assault charges. Gwinnett Chief Magistrate
Warrren Davis denied bond and lectured the teen on his “disgusting behavior”
in the incident and lack of remorse afterward. (North County Times.com, Feb.
28, 2002)
Jan. 19, 2002, Chicago
A swastika and anti-Semitic and anti-gay messages were found scrawled near the
origin of a fire in a Lakeview high-rise that killed a man, authorities said.
Though little damage was done to the building, Gregory Galvez, 71, a longtime
resident, died of smoke inhalation as he tried to make his way down the stairs
from his ninth-floor apartment, according to the Cook County medical examiner's
office. Police said his body was found on the fifth-floor stairwell. Residents
and police said there had been a rash of small fires in the building and hate
messages scrawled on elevator walls over the last several weeks. At least one
resident, the president of the building's condo association, had received hate
mail, the source said. (Chicago Tribune, Jan. 21, 2002)
Jan. 26, 2002, Houston
Hugo Cesar “Bibi” Barajas was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds to the
neck, arm and chest near a club that caters to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender community. Barajas, who is anatomically male, was dressed as a woman
at the time of the murder and was found in a halter top, blue jeans, silver
high heels with straps and a “woman’s wig with curly brown hair.” According
to police, she was also wearing make-up. Police are investigating the murder
as a possible hate crime and have no suspects, no motives and no witnesses in
the case. Since the murder, transgender community activists have called for
the state hate crimes law to be amended to include gender identity or gender
non-conformity as a protected category. They have cited six similar murders
of transgender women in the last three years alone. (Houston Voice, Feb. 13
and March 1, 2002; Texas Triangle, Feb. 1, 2002).
Feb. 4, 2002, Portage, Wis.
Jury selection began in the murder trial of Darrin Grosskopf, 33, who is accused
of murdering Keith Ward, 21, in March 2001. Grosskopf claims that he and Keith
had been drinking the night before the murder and that he was rudely awakened
by Ward allegedly trying to sexually assault him. Investigators found Ward’s
naked body with a stab wound in the chest in Grosskopf’s apartment. Investigators
also found a hunting knife near the body with apparent bloodstains. Grosskopf
allegedly told people he thought that Ward was a homosexual. This along with
comments he made to police led prosecutors to seek a hate-crime enhancement.
(The Associated Press State & Local Wire, Feb. 4, 2002)
Feb. 7, 2002, Greenwich Village,
N.Y.
A gay man was assaulted by a group of approximately 15 men in Greenwich Village.
The 36-year-old man, was walking down Christopher Street on his was to a gay
bar at around 2 a.m. when one of the men yelled an anti-gay slur as he passed
the Christopher Street PATH station. The victim turned to see who yelled at
him when someone punched him in the back of the head, police said. The victim
was treated for minor injuries at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan. (Newsday,
Feb. 8, 2002)
Feb. 8, 2002, Missoula, Mont.
Carla Grayson, Adrianne Neff and their infant son narrowly escaped their burning
home alive when their home was set ablaze in February in what police have called
an attempted homicide. The lesbian couple is a named party in a lawsuit challenging
the University of Montana, Grayson's employer, for not providing benefits to
same-sex partners. The couple received a threatening letter one day after filing
the suit. The letter contained a white powder and a sheet of paper with three
words: “Die Dykes Anthrax.” The ACLU condemned the attack, saying the fire went
far beyond intimidation. "Whoever set this fire did not intend to simply frighten
or intimidate this family. They meant to kill them," said Matt Coles, director
of the ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. The Missoula County attorney has
asked police investigators to refrain from talking to the media about an ongoing
arson investigation. Police spokesmen have said repeatedly since the fire that
they were investigating two standard arson scenarios -- that the fire was started
by an intruder or that it was ignited by someone already in the house. (The
Missoulian, March 7, 2002; The Associated Press State and Local Wire, Feb. 25,
2002)
Feb. 12, 2002, Milwaukee
James Langenbach, 30, accused of running down two teen-age boys on their bikes
almost three years ago, showed no emotion as a jury ruled that he was not mentally
ill when he drove up on a sidewalk, accelerated and struck 14-year-olds Dontrell
Langston and Austin Tyler. Last year, Langenbach pleaded no contest to six charges
including first-degree attempted homicide with a dangerous weapon and causing
great bodily harm to a child as a hate crime. Langenbach will be sentenced in
April. (WISN The Milwaukee Channel.com, Feb. 12, 2002)
Feb. 13, 2002, Muskegon, Mich.
Michael Glenn Keep, now 31, is on trial for murdering Paul Edward Chmiel in
prison because he was gay. Keep admitted in a written confession that he hated
gay men. According to reports, Chmiel allegedly offered a sexual act to Keep
in exchange for a cigarette. Although there was no sexual contact or assault
by Chmiel, Keep was infuriated by the situation, slapped Chmiel, crushed his
ribs, and strangled Chmiel to death. “It was a pretty vicious death. The motive
is his dislike of homosexual males,” police said. (Outlines Chicago, May 10,
2000)
Feb. 14, 2002, New Orleans
A 28-year-old white man was attacked a few blocks from his home in Algiers Pont
on the day of Marti Gras by approximately 12 black teen-agers. The victim was
attacked as he was exiting his vehicle. When the victim’s wife went outside
to find the source of all the commotion, she witnessed her husband being dragged
across the street as the teens kicked and beat him with a steel garbage can
lid. The victim suffered a broken jaw and other serious facial injures that
require facial reconstruction. Police are treating this as a hate crime and
have involved the FBI in the case, which still remains unsolved. (WDSU The New
Orleans Channel.com, March 22, 2002)
Feb. 24, 2002, Santa Barbara,
Calif.
Clint Scott Risetter, a 37-year-old gay man, was killed after an alleged arsonist
poured gasoline over him while he slept and set him on fire. Martin Thomas Hartman,
whom police say is a mentally troubled 38-year-old suspect in a number of arson
fires in the city, said he killed Risetter “because he was gay, and he has a
lot of hatred towards gay people.” Hartman told police that he met Risetter
about six months ago and learned recently that Risetter was homosexual. Hartman
has been charged with murder, arson and a hate crime in connection with Risetter’s
death. (Los Angeles Times, March 4, 2002)
March 6, 2002, Manchester,
N.H.
A woman accused assaulting and using a racial slur against her former Islamic
neighbor was arraigned on a charge that alleges the assault was motivated by
hate of the woman’s religion and race. Charges were brought against both Ecaterina
Svet and her daughter. Svet allegedly elbowed or bumped into the victim in the
stairwell of her building, causing her to fall down the stairs on Oct. 16 and
suffer an injury. The daughter allegedly threatened to beat the victim up. (The
Union Leader, March 6, 2002).
March 9, 2002, Huntington Beach,
Calif.
Aris Gaddvang, 25, a Filipino-American store manager, said he was left bruised
and afraid after three teenagers confronted him in a parking lot as he prepared
to unload some merchandise. They shouted racial slurs and “white power” before
beating him with metal pipes, he said. Gaddvang said he received a call a few
hours after the attack from someone who identified himself as one of the parents
of one of the attackers. He said the caller used racial slurs and threatened
him. (Los Angeles Times, March 12, 2002)
March 25, 2002, Dubuque, Iowa
A teen-ager and her father were awarded a settlement in one of the first civil
hate-crime cases in the county. According to court documents, Elizabeth Tran
was assaulted by Carla Kaufman, 17, while she was walking home from school.
“Without warning, Carla engaged in a brutal beating of Elizabeth,” the court
wrote in its ruling. The perpetrator called the victim names associated with
her Chinese heritage during the assault, and the victim had to be taken to the
hospital for treatment. (Telegraph Herald, April 15, 2002)
March 26, Denver
April Mora, 17, reported that she was attacked by three men, who held her down
and carved the words “dyke” and “RIP” into her flesh with a razor. Before leaving,
Mora says the men punched and kicked her in the stomach. She said that she was
attacked because she is gay, and said that she was probably singled out by the
men because she does not “look like a girl.” Reports have indicated that the
Denver police asked Mora whether her wounds were self-inflicted and even requested
her to take a polygraph test, which she refused. The victim and her family have
questioned the police’s handling of the case, calling them rude and arrogant.
Detectives continue to investigate. Colorado’s hate crime law covers crimes
motivated by race, color, religion and national origin, but not sexual orientation.
(The Denver Post, March 29, 2002, Rocky Mountain News, March 28, 29, 2002)
March 29, 2002, Charlottesville,
Va.
A group of nine African-American teen-agers from Charlottesville High School
will not be charged with a hate crime for allegedly assaulting white and Asian
students at the University of Virginia. Between the months of September and
January, nine University of Virginia students walking near the campus were kicked
and punched. The police reported that some of the teens accused in this case
said they targeted the victims because they were white or thought to be white.
Eight of the teens are scheduled to appear in juvenile court in April facing
a series of charges including misdemeanor assault and malicious wounding. The
ninth suspect, Gordon L. Fields, 18, was sentenced to one month in jail and
50 hours community service. Fields is expected to testify against the other
teen-agers. (The Washington Post, March 30, 2002)
March 29, 2002, Fort Wayne,
Ind.
Community groups are calling the case of physical torture of John Runner, a
34-year-old man with disabilities, a hate crime based on sexual orientation.
Runner was found in his home severely beaten and burned with bacon grease. Part
of his brain had to be removed during emergency surgery. Law enforcement allege
that Runner’s cousin and roommate, Maurice Ellis, found Runner in bed with another
man and an argument ensued. Investigators say Ellis hit and kicked Runner unconscious
then burned his chest and head with bacon grease and that the physical battery
and torture continued over a 12-hour period. Runner remained in critical condition
at an area hospital. Runner had been unable to work for several years because
he cannot use his left hand and walks with a limp. The League for the Blind
and Disabled, United Voice and the Stop the Hate Coalition are among those have
said they believe the attack was a hate crime and that his disability prevented
him from being able to defend himself. (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, April 3,
2002).
April 8, 2002 Northern Virginia
Karl Kellerman, 29, of Los Angeles was taken into custody and charged with assault
and battery of a tow-truck driver on the Beltway near Washington, D.C., according
to Virginia State Police. The victim said he attempted to assist two men who
appeared to be in need of help, but the two men began calling him racist names
and proceeded to punch, head-butt and choke him. The Iranian victim believes
it was a hate crime. The investigation is still ongoing. (WJLA, April 11, 2002)
April 10, 2002, Shenandoah
National Park, Virginia
Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the Department of Justice’s indictment
of Darrell David Rice for the 1996 slaying of two female hikers in Shenandoah
National Park, Va. The indictment marks the first time ever that the Hate Crimes
Sentencing Enhancement Act was invoked to charge someone with a hate crime based
on sexual orientation or gender. The Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act
covers only crimes committed on federal property. On June 1, 1996, Julianne
Marie Williams and Laura Winans were discovered dead in Virginia's mountainous
Shenandoah National Park, bound and gagged with their throats slit. Rice was
indicted by a grand jury in Charlottesville, Va., charged with four counts of
capital murder, two of which allege that he chose his victims because of their
gender and sexual orientation. While the law used by the department is an important
tool for law enforcement, its opportunity for application is limited to crimes
that were committed on federal property. If these murders would have happened
in any of the dozens of state or regional parks in the Commonwealth of Virginia
or anywhere else in the county except on federal property, the department would
not have been able to establish jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the
case.
April 10, 2002, El Paso, Texas
Police classified the killing of a gay man, Hector Arturo Diaz, 28, as a hate
crime. Diaz was fatally shot in the back apparently by an acquaintance. His
body, clad in female clothing, was left in a parking lot. Justen Grant Hall,
20, was arrested and charged with the murder. According to news reports, police
had asked for the help of the gay community to solve the case because Diaz was
a transvestite. (El Paso Times, April 24, 27, 2002.)
April 13, 2002, Temecula, Calif.
Police are investigating a report by two black women that they were the victims
of a hate crime committed by a group of drunken white men in a restaurant parking
lot. The two women said that several men surrounded their car, pounded dents
into it, taunted them with racial slurs and assaulted one of them by grabbing
her shirt and ripping it. One of the alleged perpetrators yelled “Heil Hitler,”
shouted at them to go back to Africa and called them monkeys. Local police are
investigating the incident as a hate crime. (The Press-Enterprise, April 17,
2002)
April 19, 2002, Atlanta
A grand jury handed down an indictment in the first hate crimes prosecution
in Fulton County. Christopher Botts, 25, Ulysses Andrade, 26, and Angela Piscotta,
19, additionally face aggravated assault charges for their roles in a “vicious
and ugly” hate attack. Dozens of witnesses allegedly saw the three white attackers
stomp and pound two black men, Che Golden, 29, and Idris Golden, 26, into the
pavement as they screamed racial slurs earlier in the month. (Atlanta Journal
and Constitution, April 20, 2002).
April 29, 2002, Indianapolis
A self-proclaimed neo-Nazi pled guilty to attempted murder of a black teen-ager.
Trevor David Thompson, 21, is accused of shooting a 13-year-old girl in the
hip as she walked with friends outside a convenience store in June 2002. Investigators
said that Thompson, who has tattoos of swastikas, apparently argued with several
black men about the insignias and then went on a mission to hurt someone who
was black. The victim recovered from her injury, but surgeons did not remove
the bullet from her body. (WRTV TheIndyChannel.com, April 29, 2002)
April 29, 2002, Chicago
The trial began in a case of suspected serial rapist, Mark Anthony Lewis, who
is charged with nine sexual assaults on Asian females, including a 15-year-old
Vietnamese girl that occurred in 2000. Lewis is alleged to have impersonated
an FBI agent, a police officer, a Census taker, utility work and a deliveryman
to gain access to the victims in their homes. Hate crimes charges have been
filed in at least one of the cases. According to news reports, he is accused
of “terrorizing the Asian community” in the series of attacks. (Chicago Sun-Times,
Aug. 10, 2000, Chicago Tribune, April 28, 2002)
May 4, 2002, Alexandria, Va.
A 28-year-old man was charged with a hate crime after he allegedly tossed a
brick through the window of an Afghan man’s car, police said. Michael Woolls
approached a 24-year-old man who was walking on the street and demanded to know
his national origin. After the man said he was from Afghanistan, Woolls hit
his car with a stick and threw a brick through the window, striking a passenger.
Woolls was charged with assault, attempted assault motivated by bias against
national origin and destruction of property. (The Washington Post, May 7, 2002)
May 5, 2002, Americus, Ga.
Three men have been charged with making terroristic threats under the state's
hate crimes act after the beating of a Georgia Southwestern State University
student. GSW students Kevin Jones, 24, and Josh Morgan, 23, and Jason Peacock,
who is believed to be a student at Valdosta State University, were charged in
the assault of Richard Marshall, 23, and an unidentified person, according to
police. Police said the charges were classified under the hate crimes but he
would not elaborate why. The three men allegedly went into a fraternity house,
woke Marshall and assaulted him, and also attacked an unidentified man sleeping
outside the fraternity house in a pickup truck. Emergency personnel said Marshall
had swelling around his mouth, nose and eyes, was missing his front teeth and
had a laceration to the back of the head. (The Associated Press State and Local
Wire, May 8, 2002)
May 7, 2002, Birmingham, Ala.
The trial of Bobby Frank Cherry, the final suspect in a 1963 church bombing
that killed four black girls, has been put on hold so attorneys can study the
jury pool's answers to questionnaires. Cherry was one of a group of Klansmen
who came under almost immediate suspicion after the bombing. However, the first
prosecution in the case did not come until 1977, when Robert "Dynamite Bob"
Chambliss was convicted and sentenced to prison, where he later died. Former
Klansman Thomas Blanton Jr., 62, was convicted in May 2001 and sentenced to
life in prison. A fourth suspect, Herman Cash, died in 1994 without being charged.
(The Associated Press, May 7, 2002)
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