The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA) today welcomed hate crime charges against a man accused of assaulting Asian and Hispanic employees at a T-Mobile store in Cupertino.
The assault reportedly occurred on June 1, when the man removed a T-Mobile sign leading to the store and threw it into the street.
A Hispanic employee and her Asian co-worker witnessed the incident and left the store to retrieve the sign. At that point, the man reportedly began screaming racial slurs at them, yelling “[expletive] Chinese, you don’t belong here” and “stupid Mexicans.”
After the Hispanic employee told the man she would call the police, he reportedly attacked her, kicking her in the stomach and punching her in the face. She reportedly temporarily lost her vision and had to be taken to the hospital. The Asian employee reportedly intervened, forcing the man to flee to a nearby store.
He has been charged with assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, hate crimes and vandalism. He is also facing a charge for threatening the deputy, whom he also allegedly called “a Mexican [expletive].”
“This appalling attack demonstrates the danger that racism and bigotry pose to members of minority communities and our society as a whole,” said CAIR-SFBA Executive Director Zahra Billoo. “We welcome the charges against the suspected perpetrator, and urge law enforcement in California and nationwide to crack down bias-motivated crime.”
She noted that yesterday, CAIR-SFBA condemned an assault on an Asian-American man in Oakland and racist harassment targeting a South Bay couple.