For the Record
A sampling of hate crimes and hate group activities is summarized in state-by-state listings.
Incidents of apparent hate crimes and hate group activities listed here are drawn primarily from media sources. These incidents include only a fraction of the almost 260,000 reported and unreported hate crimes that a 2012 Bureau of Justice Statistics report estimated occur annually. This listing carries a selection of incidents from the fourth quarter of 2014. Any additional listings can be found on the Intelligence Project’s website.
splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-incidents
ALABAMA
Prattville • Oct. 25, 2014
Flyers from the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were distributed in neighborhoods.
ARIZONA
Phoenix • Nov. 17, 2014
Brice Johnson, 19, was sentenced to 183 months in federal prison for kidnapping and assaulting a young gay man because of his sexual orientation in September 2013.
ARKANSAS
Bentonville • Oct. 24, 2014
Flyers from the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were left in a neighborhood.
CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles • Dec. 18, 2014
Former white supremacist Richard Phillip Ritchie, 39, was convicted of first-degree murder in the racially motivated killing of Howard Garfield McClendon, a 32-year-old black man, in 1997.
Marysville • Dec. 9, 2014
Anthony Merrell Tyler, 34; Billy Hammett, 30; and Perry Jackson, 29, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3 years and 10 months to more than 7 years for their roles in yelling racial slurs and assaulting an interracial couple in 2011. Tyler, Hammett and Jackson all have tattoos that read “white pride” or “white power.”
Oakland • Nov. 14, 2014
Richard Thomas, 17, was sentenced to seven years in a state juvenile facility for setting another teen on fire last November because of the teen’s sexual orientation.
Sacramento • Nov. 20, 2014
Joseph Paul Leonard, Jr., a 62-year-old white man, was convicted of first-degree murder with a hate-crime enhancement for the June 2013 death of Toussaint Harrison, a black man. Leonard ran over Harrison with his truck after a verbal altercation in a parking lot where Leonard used racial slurs. He was also convicted of attempted murder for assaulting Harrison’s business partner.
San Bernardino • Oct. 2, 2014
Self-proclaimed white supremacist Thomas Joseph Murphy, 46, was sentenced to 248 years to life for the 2009 kidnapping, assault and battery of three women, animal cruelty and dissuading a witness.
San Francisco • Nov. 23, 2014
Hugo John Scherzberg, 46, was charged with suspicion of arson with a hate crime enhancement for allegedly pouring gasoline on the front door of a church and setting it on fire.
COLORADO
Colorado Springs • Dec. 19, 2014
Zachary Ballenger, a 21-year-old white man, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted first-degree murder, multiple counts of bias-motivated crime resulting in injury, assault and resisting arrest for allegedly shooting at two black men in September in a parking lot after yelling racial slurs at them.
ILLINOIS
Chicago • Oct. 21, 2014
Terry Glover, 25, pleaded guilty to two felony counts each of aggravated battery and hate crime charges and was sentenced to 3 years in prison for attacking a lesbian couple in July.
Homewood • Oct. 11, 2014
Pol Danilov, 26, was charged with attempted first-degree murder and committing a hate crime after allegedly stabbing a 79-year-old black woman in a grocery store.
Plano • Dec. 16, 2014
Dakota Malert, 21; Frank Faybik, 24; Christian Cervantes, 19; and Kevin Cox, 22, were charged with felony mob action for allegedly beating two men on Nov. 8 because of their sexual orientation.
INDIANA
Winchester • Oct. 12, 2014
Flyers from the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were left in yards.
MARYLAND
Baltimore • Oct. 16, 2014
Karen Murphy, a black former bus driver with the Baltimore MTA, was charged with assault and conspiracy for allegedly arranging for a group of black student teens to attack a white family riding her bus.
MISSISSIPPI
Jackson • Dec. 12, 2014
Two 21-year-old white women, Shelbie Brooke Richards and Sarah Adelia Graves, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a series of attacks on blacks that culminated when a black man, James Craig Anderson, was run over and killed in Jackson in 2011.
MISSOURI
Fenton • Oct. 7, 2014
Flyers from the Traditional American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were left at residences in a neighborhood.
Kansas City • Dec. 5, 2014
Ahmed H. Aden, 34, was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in a hit-and-run crash that fatally injured 15-year-old Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein at a Somali Center.
St. Louis County • Nov. 13, 2014
The Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan distributed flyers around the St. Louis area threatening violent action against Ferguson “terrorists” if they become violent.
NEW YORK
Clarkstown • Dec. 22, 2014
Chris Bujaj and Ardijan Mehaj, both 17; and Florend Gjevukaj, 18, were charged with assault as a hate crime for three unprovoked assaults on five Jewish customers at the Palisades Mall on Black Friday. Anti-Jewish slurs were used.
New York • Oct. 25, 2014
Prabhjot Singh, a Sikh professor at Columbia University, was assaulted by a group of people who allegedly called him “Osama” and a “terrorist” while punching him in the face.
New York • Oct. 28, 2014
Matthew Smith, 20, was charged with three counts of second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime and assault for a September 2014 attack on a group of transgendered women.
NORTH CAROLINA
Spindale • Dec. 9, 2014
Five members of Word of Faith Fellowship were charged with kidnapping and assault for allegedly attacking and beating a fellow church member who is gay.
OHIO
Toledo • Nov. 3, 2014
Christopher Temple, 20, was charged with assault for allegedly attacking a transgender woman. Temple was one of three men who yelled derogatory comments at the woman, knocked her to the ground, beat and robbed her.
TENNESSEE
Nashville • Oct. 10, 2014
Timothy Flanagan, 33, a former member of the Church of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, pleaded guilty for his role in the 2012 cross burning in front of an interracial family’s home.
UTAH
Hurricane • Nov. 30, 2014
Robert Keller, 71, pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime charge for threatening to kill two white neighbors if they didn’t force a black relative to leave their apartment complex.
