Hate crime charges and an attempted murder charge have been added against a man accused of attacking three Asian store owners in Baltimore last month, reports CBS Baltimore.
Authorities say surveillance video shows Darryl Doles, 50, of attacking two Asian women, both sisters in their 60s, with a concrete block. It was part of a series of attacks on the three stores carried out on the same day, they say.
“They need to go back to their country,” a grand jury report quoted Doles as saying, according to the Baltimore Sun. “I’ll order out before I eat that mother——- food.”
An indictment handed down today includes 22 charges.
“Hate has no place in our city,” Mayor Brandon Scott said. “My administration has no tolerance for racially motivated acts of discrimination and hate crimes. … We will be a city for everyone.”
“We will not tolerate racially motivated crimes of violence inflicted on members of our community,” said State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.
The defendant’s attorney accused Mosby of grandstanding. She said that her client suffers from poor mental health and addiction.
“Unfortunately, we have seen that office overcharge cases on a regular basis simply because they want press attention,” Staci Pipkin said to the Baltimore Sun. “There is no new evidence presented since the time that the SAO [state’s attorney’s office] chose to initially charge this as an assault. It was only after this case made the news that these charges were added, increasing the penalties dramatically.”
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