West police targeting white supremacists in 'hate crime'

Thursday, August 16, 2007

By Erin Quinn

Tribune-Herald staff writer

West police say they anticipate making between six and 10 arrests in connection with a brutal attack they’re calling a hate crime.

Four of the suspects, West police Detective Kimberly Lucien told the Tribune-Herald, are teenage girls who live in the West area.

Lucien said she believes the group, who reportedly claim to be part of a worldwide white supremacist organization, intended to kill a 28-year-old Hispanic man they met up with Sunday night at a Skinny’s convenience store in West.

The group had never met the man before, she said, but got into a fight with him in the store’s parking lot over something he said about one of the women in the group.

The man, who was with a white friend and the friend’s son, reportedly got into their car and fled the area.

Lucien said they were followed by the group, who forced the fleeing party off the road in a deserted area.

There, she said, they hit, kicked, stomped and cut the Hispanic man.

Lucien declined to name the victim. The attack was stopped, she said, when the victim’s friend and his son accidentally ran the man over with their car, breaking both of his legs. The group of attackers then fled.

Police officers seized a surveillance video from the Skinny’s parking lot and have located a truck that carried some of the attackers, Lucien said. She obtained a search warrant Wednesday but could not be reached for comment later in the day.

A search warrant is not public record until it is executed.

The alleged victim was in a local hospital Wednesday in stable condition.

Lucien said the group told the victim they are members of Aryan Nations, a nationwide white supremacist organization. Its Web site states its members are “arming themselves — not with congratulatory notes from a now nonexistent regional leader, or a flier for the next rally on the footsteps of a myriad of courthouse steps — but with ‘guns, knives, bullets and bombs.’ ”

Lucien said she had never heard of the group’s having a presence in West.

equinn@wacotrib.com

Source: WacoTrib