Attorney calls for hate crime charges after Detroit crash confrontation spreads online
Woman to speak out about alleged hate crime and assault
The victim’s attorney is holding a news conference at the Westin at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday to call on the prosecutor’s office to charge this as a hate crime. Attorney Johnny Hawkins says his client was allegedly tormented by an angry mob of Muslim men using racial slurs.
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - A heated exchange between a group of Muslim men and the activist organization New Era Detroit began to spread online earlier in September.
The back and forth happened after a crash took place in Detroit involving an Arab American driver allegedly running a red light and hitting a vehicle driven by an African American woman. Now a lawyer representing the victim is calling on the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office to do the right thing.
Big picture view:
The victim’s attorney is holding a news conference at the Westin at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday to call on the prosecutor’s office to charge this as a hate crime. Attorney Johnny Hawkins says his client was allegedly tormented by an angry mob of Muslim men using racial slurs.
It is also alleged that the victim had items stolen from her vehicle as the mob allegedly worked to protect the Muslim driver and her vehicle.
"This is a serious crime that’s being alleged, being a hate crime involving a large mob, all of Arabic descent, that really should never have happened," said attorney Johnny Hawkins. "We’re not saying Ms. Worthy isn’t doing her job. We just haven’t heard anything. There’s a dereliction of duty with regards to police on the day of. We have not heard from them yet to say what they’re doing to correct that."
The alleged victim sounds off
Crash victim speaks out after alleged hate crime
She says immediately after the crash, dozens of men living in the neighborhood came out, removed the 18-year-old driver from her car and then turned their attention to her, verbally insulting her and threatening to attack her with a baseball bat while she waited for police to arrive.
Susan Smith, the alleged victim, says she is still traumatized by what happened.
She says immediately after the crash, dozens of men living in the neighborhood came out, removed the 18-year-old driver from her car and then turned their attention to her, verbally insulting her and threatening to attack her with a baseball bat while she waited for police to arrive.
"My car was immediately surrounded by 20 to 30 men," Susan Smith said. "They opened all the car doors and took my purse out of the front seat of the car. They took the license plate off the car and pushed it two blocks away. The car disappeared and she disappeared. This guy just started yelling and cussing and calling us all kind of names, and before it was all said and done there was about 75 to 80 men and two police officers."
The attorneys for Ms. Smith say this investigation needs to continue.
Dig deeper:
Earlier on Tuesday, FOX 2 caught up with the founder and publisher of the Arab American News to get his reaction to the request to have this deemed a hate crime.
"I can tell you right now," said publisher Osama Siblani. "This is officially made problem. There was a crime that we need to get to the bottom of this because there’s a victim involved, but hate crime is being politically used."
FOX 2 did reach out to the prosecutor’s office, and was told that an 18-year-old woman has been charged with two misdemeanors.
A second warrant request was submitted for a 20-year-old Detroit man for an incident following the crash, but the prosecutor’s office denied the warrant because of insufficient evidence to prove the crime, and they want police to investigate more.
The prosecutor’s office also released this statement, which reads:
"When the police complete the investigation and submit the warrant request, we will make a charging decision based solely upon the facts and the law."
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The Source: FOX 2 used information from previous reporting for details in this story.