Tag Archives: hate crimes

Portland’s CBS News affiliate reports: The man who chased a black teenager with his car and intentionally ran him over outside a 7-Eleven was sentenced to life in prison. The August 2016 incident killed 19-year-old Larnell Bruce. Russell Courtier received his sentence on Tuesday morning. The State of Oregon previously presented evidence showing that Courtier is a white supremacist. In …

The Associated Press reports: The white man suspected in the burnings of three African American churches in Louisiana will remain in jail, denied bond Monday by a judge, as state prosecutors added new charges declaring the arsons a hate crime. Twenty-one-year-old Holden Matthews, the son of a sheriff’s deputy, entered his not guilty plea via video conference from the St. …

Lafayette, Louisiana’s ABC News affiliate reports: KATC has confirmed with multiple law enforcement sources that one person is in custody in the recent church fires in St. Landry Parish. Sources confirm the suspect in the church arsons is Holden Matthews, 21. He is the son of a St. Landry Parish Deputy. He was booked at around 5:30 this evening into …

CBS News reports: As Dr. Mohammad Abu-Salha calmly, clinically, described reviewing the autopsy reports for his murdered daughters and son-in-law, members of the House Judiciary Committee clasped their hands over the mouths, stifling tears. The Feb. 10, 2015 murders of 21-year-old Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, her 23-year-old husband Deah Shaddy Barakat, and 19-year-old sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, shocked the Chapel Hill, …

Ben Winslow reports at Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate: After years and years of trying and failing, Utah finally has a working hate crimes law. In a public ceremony at the Utah State Capitol on Tuesday, Governor Gary Herbert signed Senate Bill 103 into law. “I think with the passage of Senate Bill 103, we are sending a message that …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: The Florida man who was caught on video asking a Utah man if he is gay and then punching him failed to show up for a court date on Friday, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Carlo Alazo, 22, faces three misdemeanors — one count of threatening to use a weapon in a …

NBC News Chicago reports: The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice will review the case involving “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett, President Donald Trump tweeted early Thursday. Representatives for the FBI and DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday morning. The surprise decision to dismiss all charges, which was celebrated by Smollett and his …

CBS News reports: James Fields, Jr. has pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crime charges for his car attack on a crowd of people on Aug. 12, 2017 in Charlottesville. The attack killed Heather Heyer Charlottesville that killed Heather Heyer and injured many other people. As a result of the plea, the death penalty was taken off the table. The …

Deadline reports: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson dismissed Empire actor Jussie Smollett’s latest insistence on his innocence and decried the prosecutors’ dismissal of criminal charges against the Empire actor as, in Emanuel’s words, “a whitewash.” Emanuel lambasted Smollett as selfishly exploiting hate crime laws for his own personal gain. “He took those laws and turned them …

“I want you to know that not for a moment was it in vain. I’ve been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one. I would not be my mother’s son if I was capable of one drop of what I was accused of. This has been an incredibly difficult time. Honestly, one of the worst of my …

Chicago’s ABC affiliate reports: Charges against actor Jussie Smollett have been dropped, his attorneys said Tuesday. Smollett is in court to make an emergency court appearance. In a statement, Smollett’s attorneys Tina Glandian and Patricia Brown Holmes said, “Today, all criminal charges against Jussie Smollett were dropped and his record has been wiped clean of the filing of this tragic …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: After years of stalling in the Utah Legislature, a bill to strengthen the state’s hate crimes law has now cleared both chambers by commanding margins. Before passing the bill, the House adopted an amendment that added “political expression” to the list of categories that would be protected by the updated hate crimes statue. Rep. Karianne …

The Birmingham Herald reports: A 45-year-old man convicted in the 1999 hate crime murder of Billy Jack Gaither has been killed in an Alabama prison. Steven Eric Mullins [photo] was found unresponsive Feb. 26 at St. Clair Correctional Facility, Alabama Department of Corrections officials announced Monday. The Department of Corrections’ Investigations and Intelligence Division is filing capital murder charges against …

ABC News reports: Mark Bartlett, who is white, originally was charged only with carrying a concealed firearm after he allegedly pulled a gun on protesters blocking a Miami street as a part of a demonstration on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. But prosecutors announced hate crime charges on Tuesday, citing the completion of final interviews and witness statements. Bartlett, 51, …

The Indianapolis Star reports: The Indiana Senate voted to amend a hate crimes proposal Tuesday, scrapping from the bill all protected characteristics, including gender identity, race and sexual orientation. The amendment to Senate Bill 12 removed the list of specific characteristics and added that judges can consider bias more generally as an aggravating circumstance when weighing a stricter sentence for …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Empire star Jussie Smollett was attacked early this morning in Chicago in what police are saying is a possible hate crime, Deadline has confirmed. Chicago PD released the following statement on Twitter: “Overnight the Chicago Police Department received a report of a possible racially charged assault and battery against a cast member of the television show Empire. …

Ben Winslow reports at Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said it will not oppose a bill that would expand Utah’s hate crimes law to include protections for LGBTQ people. “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been the recipients of hate crimes over the years. We understand that,” Marty Stephens, …

The Associated Press reports: Police say they have arrested a man suspected of sucker-punching a woman and fracturing her spine in an anti-gay attack aboard a New York City subway train. Allah Allasheed was charged Thursday with assault as a hate crime in the Nov. 30 attack in Queens aboard a Manhattan-bound E train. The 54-year-old’s arrest comes days after …

The New York Daily News reports: A homophobic straphanger sucker-punched a woman on a train, sending her to the hospital with a broken spine – all because he thought she was a lesbian, cops said Saturday. The man became incensed after he saw another woman peck the victim on the cheek Nov. 30 at about 5:10 p.m. aboard an E …

The Miami Herald reports: Indiana Parra was riding her moped with her girlfriend, Rimbow Gomez, when a white Dodge Ram van covered in bizarre political stickers pulled alongside.  The driver — a middle-aged man — began yelling at the younger couple. Without warning, he threw a cup of urine from the driver’s side window. It missed the moped, which was …