The Sacramento Valley/Central California office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is asking officials to charge the man who attempted to run Middle Eastern families over in his car with hate crime charges.
According to a statement from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department posted on Twitter, the incident happened on Sunday. Around 7:30 p.m., the Sheriff’s Communications Center received multiple 911 calls saying that a man was trying to run people over at Heron Landing Park in the City of Rancho Cordova.
The callers specified that the suspect was targeting people of Middle Eastern descent. He shouted racial slurs at them and threatened to “shoot and bomb” them.
The Sheriff’s Department says it used witness accounts and video footage to identify the suspect as 33-year-old Robert Avery. Avery was taken into custody without incident on Monday morning, August 7. He was sought for assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats and a hate crime charge.
CAIR-SV/CC is calling for federal law enforcement authorities to bring hate crime charges against Avery.
“We thank local law enforcement authorities for their swift action in taking the suspect into custody and urge federal authorities to consider bringing hate crime charges for this apparently bias-motivated attack on members of a minority community,” said CAIR-SV/CC Senior Civil Rights Attorney Layli Shirani in a press release.
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