Civil rights groups are calling for hate crime charges against the suspect in the stabbing of a 23-year-old Palestinian American man in Austin, Texas.
According to KVUE, law enforcement responded to 911 calls around 7 p.m. on February 4 in West Campus, near the University of Texas. The calls said a man had been stabbed and another man, the suspect, had been pinned to the ground. Police have identified the suspect as 36-year-old Bert James Baker.
Witnesses told police that Baker allegedly approached a group of four young men who were sitting in a pickup truck while on his bicycle. They say Baker pulled open the rear right passenger door and the front right passenger door before placing his bicycle in front of the truck.
Baker then allegedly began yelling racial slurs at the young men in the truck and attempted to rip a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian scarf, from the truck. The group got out of the truck and approached Baker who punched the victim in the shoulder. A fight broke out.
Witnesses say Baker pulled out a long knife from his sweatshirt, rushed at the young men and stabbed the victim. The victim managed to wrestle Baker to the ground after he was stabbed, allowing his friends to safely retrieve the knife.
The victim has been identified by his father, Nizar Doar, as Zacharia Doar. He was hospitalized after the stabbing and underwent surgery.
“The first thing that came to mind is, I’m going to lose my son,” Nizar Doar said at a press conference per CNN. “I was thinking, how am I going to tell them that I failed to protect my son?”
Nizar Doar says his son’s wife has just had a baby.
Police are investigating the stabbing as a bias-motivated incident. Civil rights groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are calling for hate crime charges to be brought against Baker.
“No one should be targeted and attacked because they put Palestinian-themed items on their vehicle. Anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Muslim bigotry have no place in Texas or anywhere else in our nation,” said CAIR-Dallas Director Mustafa Carroll, per CBS Austin.
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